Milk Quota Systems: Considerations of Market and Welfare Effects

Although the key concept of a quota is simple to set a limit on production the market and welfare implications of operating a quota system are relatively complex. The purpose of the analysis reported in this paper is to address two aspects relevant to an evaluation of quota systems. First, quota is typically contingent on the existence of another policy, namely market price support, and as such, interacts with other policy tools in pursuing defined policy objectives. The paper examines analytically and empirically the trade-offs that exist among the individual policy tools for a given policy objective. Second, the paper discusses some important welfare effects of quota systems that are not often considered in the literature. It illustrates that if parts of the primary factors of production are not owned by the milk farmer and prices for purchase farm inputs are not perfectly elastic the conventionally used measure of producer surplus may understate net benefits to farmers of a quota system. Under the quota, the share of benefits flowing to owners of farm resources is magnified at the expense of input suppliers and the rent accruing to quota reduces the surplus accruing to traditional resources. A fact that aggravates the vested interests inherent to a quota.Milk Quota, Policy Objectives, Welfare Analysis, Quota Rent, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

The Participation Paradox: Quotas Policy in Latin America

Within the last 20 years, the problem of women’s participation in formal power positions has been mobilising women, especially feminists, throughout Latin America. After over half a century since gaining the right to vote, Latin-American women have recognised that, in practice, this fought for right did not guarantee the right to be elected as well. Indeed, Latin American women have remained marginalised from power, kept from participating in greater numbers in deliberative power structures. In these circumstances, the implementation of quota systems for women in a context of affirmative action policies has figured as a major goal in the mobilisation of women in their struggle for access to power structures. In some countries, thanks to the implementation of quota systems such as in Costa Rica and Argentina, women have been able to effect changes in the balance of power, reaching significant levels of participation in legislative bodies. However, in the great majority of Latin American countries that adopted quota systems, major changes have yet to come through. This is true even in the case of Brazil, despite the presence of a strong and well articulated women’s movement. The objective of this paper, which was presented to presented to the 'Pathways: What are we Learning?' Analysis Conference held in Cairo, 20-24 January 2009, is to analyse these different Latin American experiences with quota systems, identifying the factors that have contributed to their success or failure, the implications for women’s actual access to formal power, as well as the role of women and feminist movements in articulating these demands.UK Department for International Developmen

Electoral quotas for women: an international overview

This paper provides an overview of recent global trends in women’s political representation. It describes the different types of gender quotas that have been adopted, and summarises the various arguments for and against their use, as well as key issues and observations about the impact of quotas drawing on recent international research. The paper concludes with an examination of the current status of electoral gender quotas in Australia, and presents a comparative survey of quota systems in Commonwealth countries including Australia (Appendix 3).Executive summary Less than one in five parliamentarians across the world are women. Legal or voluntary electoral gender quotas are used in more than half of the world’s countries as the most effective mechanism for increasing women’s political representation. Electoral quotas have gained international support and have proven to be effective in ‘fast-tracking’ women’s political representation to produce equality of results, not just equality of opportunity. Their introduction has been controversial in some countries, particularly in liberal democracies where critics oppose them on the basis that they discriminate against men and undermine the selection of candidates or parliamentarians on the basis of merit. Gender quota systems differ in type and application. The main systems in use are reserved seats, legal candidate quotas, and voluntary political party quotas. The success of gender quotas is influenced by various factors including the nature of the political system, the type of electoral or voting system, the type of quota system adopted, cultural attitudes towards the role of women in society, and the nature of the parliamentary environment itself. In 2012 the Australian Government committed $320 million to support a 10-year initiative to ‘empower women and to promote gender equality in the Pacific’ region, which has the world’s lowest proportion of women parliamentarians

Quotas: A Pathway of Political Empowerment?

Over the last 20 years, the problem of low levels of representation of women in political office has been mobilising women, and especially feminists, throughout the world. The adoption of quotas has become a much?used tool to address the challenge of increasing women's political representation, and as a route to enhancing women's political empowerment. In Latin America, many countries have adopted quota systems, but with widely varying effects. This article takes stock of Latin American experience and asks to what extent quota systems have served as a pathway of women into politics. Identifying challenges to implementation and factors that have contributed to their success or failure, the article seeks to explore lessons that can be learnt from this experience that can help contribute to strengthening mechanisms and processes that support the achievement of greater equality in a sphere in which women continue to be grossly under?represented

How OECD countries can address the migration backlash

As European policymakers attempt to respond to the migration crisis, they face a challenge in terms of public opinion, with many proposed solutions, such as refugee quota systems, proving deeply unpopular in several countries. Based on a new report by the OECD, Stefano Scarpetta outlines how these challenges can be met by states dealing with large inflows of refugees

Post-Buyout Structural Change in the Peanut and Tobacco Sectors

When longstanding marketing quota systems were eliminated (“bought out”) in 2002 for peanuts and 2004 for tobacco, producers lost quota-related price supports and other quota system protections, and were exposed more directly to a market-oriented system. The nature of the peanut and tobacco marketing quota programs, the structure and magnitude of the buyouts, and market dynamics influenced the ensuing structural changes that occurred at the farm, regional, and aggregate market levels. Analysis of USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Surveys (ARMS) on peanut and tobacco producers over a multi-year timeframe provides insights on, and a basis for comparing and contrasting the buyout impacts along multiple dimensions. Notable developments include a consolidation in the number and increased scale of farms, regional shifts in production regions, and increased use of contracting to manage price risk.peanuts, tobacco, policy, marketing quotas, buyouts, Agricultural and Food Policy,