CAUSES OF RURAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

This paper investigates the sources of growth in agricultural value-added (GDP) and rural household incomes using a sample of developing countries. The main factors are: (i) providing macroeconomic and political stability; (ii) institutions establishing property rights and incentives; (iii) access to competitive input markets and remunerative output markets; and (iv) adoption of productivity-enhancing technology, and (v) real income growth in the non-agricultural economy. The evidence indicates a surprisingly large role of the fifth of these.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

DISCUSSION: AN EVALUATION OF THE 1981 FARM PROGRAM FOR CROPS: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE 1985 FARM BILL

Agricultural and Food Policy,

THE EFFECTS OF RECESSION ON THE RURAL-FARM ECONOMY

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

COMMENTS ON EMERGING AGRICULTURAL POLICIES OF THE CARTER ADMINISTRATION

Agricultural and Food Policy,

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in the United States and Canada

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE

American farmers have gained substantially from agricultural trade, despite the competition posed for producers of imported commodities. Because of U.S. comparative advantage in most agricultural products, the farm sector would be smaller and farmers would be poorer with reduced trade. Evidence indicates that in the 1990s, each dollar of additional export sales is worth about 40 cents in additional net farm income. Two crucial elements in future export growth are continued productivity gains and further reductions in barriers to agricultural trade around the world. The two are linked in farm income determination, in that elastic demand is important for productivity gains to translate to farm income growth.agricultural exports, farm income, GATT, productivity, International Relations/Trade,

Economists and the 2002 Farm Bill: What Is the Value-Added of Policy Analysis?

The 2002 Farm Act is used as a case study of three problematic considerations related to economists' role in policy issues: priority on economic efficiency versus income distribution, the role of benefit-cost analysis, and appropriate policies given market power of agribusiness. The results of the 2002 Act relevant to each of these issues have been widely criticized, raising questions about the effectiveness of economists' involvement. However, given the uncertainties about many key program effects, criticisms of the Act are themselves in question. In this context, the role of economists is seen analytically as generating information for Bayesian decision makers, and practically as gaining attention for that information in the political process.Agricultural and Food Policy,

COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE IN METROPOLITAN AREAS: ECONOMICS AND REGULATORY ISSUES

Metropolitan agriculture is economically important, especially in the Northeast. While faced with substantial economic and regulatory obstacles, commercial farming in urban areas is surviving and even prospering. In terms of standard models of agriculture in economic development, this is a puzzle. But more detailed, spatial economic models indicate how labor-intensive production of perishable commodities in urbanized areas can make economic sense, especially when coupled with environmental amenities that farming generates for nonfarm people. At the same time, environmental disamenities of agriculture are larger in densely populated areas. The political economy outcomes have tended to be favorable to continued farming, albeit with increased regulation. Nonetheless, many questions remain about the dynamics of agricultural adjustment to urbanization, and the possible steady-state mix of farm and nonfarm activities.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Returns to policy-related social science research in agriculture:

Policy research is valuable as a source of information for decisionmakers. The value of research is the expected social gain from policy decisions influenced by the information generated. The gain from a decision depends on choosing the best policy given the state of the world, which is uncertain. The output of policy research is a conclusion about that state. Taking a Bayesian approach, the ex ante value of a research program is estimated from information about decisionmakers' prior probabilities of the state of the world and the likelihood of correct and incorrect research findings. Case studies of U.S. agricultural policy research cover consequences of trade liberalization, farm commodity program analysis, effects of publicly supported commodity promotion, and the value of publicly funded crop forecasting and research on agricultural technology. The quantification of the value of these research programs is highly conjectural, but consideration of their likely magnitude, as compared to the costs of the research, suggests that there are substantial net social gains.Economic policies., Agricultural economics., Impact assessment,

HOW PRICE INSTABILITY COMPLICATES THE ANALYSIS OF PRICE SUPPORTS

Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis,