Reforming the EU Sugar Policy

This article presents and analyses the impacts of the EU sugar policy. Particular attention is given to the modelling of the quite complex policy and the calibration of the global general equilibrium model at the member state level. Two scenarios are analysed, namely a reduction in the intervention price of sugar and the sugar quota. It is found that the economic impacts of the two scenarios are quite different in terms of the effects on European production and trade in sugar as well in terms of efficiency. The impacts for developing countries also differ considerably across the two scenarios.EU sugar policy, general equilibrium modelling, reform scenarios, Agricultural and Food Policy, C68, D58, Q17, Q18,

GTAP at Work in Denmark - Quantifying and Qualifying a Political Debate

In March 1999 the Danish Minister of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries invited key policy makers from the food industry, farmers' organisations, consumer organisations and labour unions in Denmark to discuss the future perspectives for the Danish agricultural and fisheries sectors in a national and global context. In order to qualify and quantify the debate, the Danish Institute of Agricultural and Fisheries Economics (SJFI) was called upon to participate in the discussions and to assess the future development of the Danish agricultural sectors with the aim of identifying challenges and opportunities. SJFI was also asked to analyse the economic consequences of specific policy scenarios, including the impact of higher national standards in relation to environmental protection, animal welfare and food security. This paper describes how the SJFI team has put GTAP to work in a specific policy context demonstrating the applicability of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models for practical policy advise purposes. It is concluded that such model-based analysis - in spite of its limitations - has influenced the political debate in Denmark and that the strength of the CGE approach lies not so much in the exact numerical results, but rather in the focus on important economic mechanisms and linkages, thereby providing a structured analytical framework. Moreover, the Danish experience illustrates that using more formal analytical approaches such as CGE modelling contributes to a more focused, disciplined and hence a more constructive policy debat

Reforming the EU Sugar Policy

This article presents and analyses the impacts of the EU sugar policy. Particular attention is given to the modelling of the quite complex policy and the calibration of the global general equilibrium model at the member state level. Two scenarios are analysed, namely a reduction in the intervention price of sugar and the sugar quota. It is found that the economic impacts of the two scenarios are quite different in terms of the effects on European production and trade in sugar as well in terms of efficiency. The impacts for developing countries also differ considerably across the two scenarios

Size Dependence of the 2p-Level Shift of Nanosolid Silicon

Modeling exercises on the size-induced blue-shift in the photoluminescence (PL) of nanosolid Si (J. Phys. Chem. B 2002, 106, 11725) have been extended herewith to the size dependence of the Si-2p energy-level-shift measured using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Results show consistency in both the origin and trend of the core-level shift with that of band-gap expansion upon Si nanosolid formation. Most strikingly, decoding the size dependent XPS peak shift leads to quantitative information about the 2p-level atomic trapping energy of an isolated Si atom (−96.74 eV) and the crystal binding intensity (−2.46 eV) upon bulk solid formation, which is beyond the scope of direct measurement using currently available techniques