La Politique Agricole Commune

La Politique Agricole Commune (PAC) est l’objet de ce numéro spécial de Regards économiques. Deux articles y sont consacrés. Le premier propose une analyse des effets économiques probables de la réforme récente de la PAC sur l’agriculture belge. Quant au second, il se demande comment rendre la PAC plus juste et plus efficace. La PAC : Une analyse de la réforme récente Les autorités régionales belges doivent se prononcer sur les différentes options de réforme de la PAC proposées par l'accord européen de juin dernier. Cet article examine les effets économiques probables de ces options sur l'agriculture belge à l'aide de deux modèles économiques complémentaires. Ce numéro donne aussi des pistes de réflexion sur quelques questions préoccupantes liées à cet accord et à l'évolution de la PAC. La PAC : Pour la rendre plus juste et plus efficace La PAC est examinée par le biais de trois questions. D’abord, quelles justifications normatives peut-on apporter à un subside de l’activité agricole pour elle même ? Ensuite, qui sont les bénéficiaires ultimes de la PAC dans ses versions passées et présente ? Enfin, peut-on reformuler une PAC dont les effets objectifs répondraient aux critères normatifs énoncés plus haut ?

Modelling preferential sugar imports of the EU: a spatial price equilibrium analysis

A spatial price equilibrium model with a large coverage of countries, policies and regional trade arrangements is applied to simulate preferential sugar imports of the European Union (EU) in 2015/16 under different assumptions with respect to the expansion of the sugar sectors of various least developed countries in order to benefit from unlimited EU market access. These are analysed under three different policy settings: a continuation of current policies, except for export refunds which are phased out by 2013, a continuation of current policies including export refunds and finally a World Trade Organisation agreement. Preferential imports are estimated to clearly exceed current estimates by the European Commission. In all scenarios, however, they are not found to threaten the reference price of the new Common Market Organisation. Oxford University Press and Foundation for the European Review of Agricultural Economics 2010; all rights reserved. For permissions, please email [email protected], Oxford University Press.

Positive Mathematical Programming for Agricultural and Environmental Policy Analysis: Review and Practice

Positive mathematical programming (PMP) has renewed the interest in mathematical modelling of agricultural and environmental policies. This chapter explains first the main advantages and disadvantages of the PMP approach, followed by a presentation of an individual farm-based sector model, called SEPALE. The farm-based approach allows the introduction of differences in individual farm structures in the PMP modelling framework. Furthermore, a farm-level model gives the possibility of identifying the impacts according to various farm characteristics. Simulations of possible alternatives to the implementation of the Agenda 2000 mid-term review illustrate the value of such a model. This chapter concludes with some topics for further research to resolve some of the PMP limitations

Organisation of knowledge transfer in agricultural policy analysis

This chapter starts from the complex knowledge flow linked with quantitative policy analysis. An overview is given of the different stakeholders, their conflicting interests, the asymmetry in information flow and the asset specificity of a decision support system. Reflections on this predominantly communication problem lead to questions about appropriate institutional arrangements to increase knowledge transfer efficiency. First insights are in favour of a hybrid governance structure integrating long-term contract with spot market knowledge production. The working term "communication facilitator" (CF) is introduced to assign the functional, technical and organisational elaboration of a better knowledge transfer. These aspects are illustrated through the set-up of a policy analysis consortium and a pocket example of evaluating the EU-CAP mid-term review