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,