Category: General posts
17.02.2011
Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel, Professor at the University of Göttingen, says that models are like maps: they are never entirely realistic but help us find the way. In the case of the post-2013 CAP, the reform path does not even depend on the traditional models because the main issue is not greater market orientation.
Category: General posts
28.01.2011
Jean-Marc Boussard is a former director of the French agricultural research institute INRA and highly experienced in models of agriculture that incorporate uncertainty. Reacting to the recent ‘Guide to the CAP reform politics’, he raises important questions about what economists really know about agriculture and what kind of recommendations they can give with sufficient certainty. Readers are welcome to contribute short comments or longer responses (1-3 pages) in this debate that will be posted on this blog.
Category: Studies
27.01.2011
Valentin Zahrnt (ECIPE), 2011.
Category: General posts
19.01.2011
On 13 January, Dacian Cioloş gave testimony to the UK Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on CAP reform. Here is what he said.
Category: General posts
13.01.2011
Does the EU need agricultural tariffs and subsidies to ensure its food security? The food price surges in 2007/08 and the 2010 spike in wheat prices have pushed this question into the headlines. In December 2010, the FAO food price index even exceeded its 2008 peak.
Category: Studies
13.01.2011
Valentin Zahrnt, ECIPE (2011).
Category: Studies
07.01.2011
Cao, Y., Elliott, J., Moxey, A. and Zahrnt V. (2010).
Category: General posts
21.12.2010
Since the beginning of OECD calculations in 1986, EU agricultural policies have transferred about €2.5 trillion from taxpayers and consumers to farmers. If an interest rate of 5% is assumed (a conservative figure compared to the social returns from investments in education and research), the present value of these transfers rises to about €5 trillion. If the agricultural subsidies and tariffs between 1957 and 1985 were added, for which no OECD data exists, we would get two-digit trillion numbers. But this money does not raise farm wages in the long run.
Category: General posts
20.12.2010
Farmers and speakers from DG Agri have repeatedly complained about the double squeeze of farm incomes: falling farm gate prices combined with rising costs for inputs, such as energy and fertilizer. The disastrous year of 2009 had wiped out all the gains of the last 15 years, they said. But the upswing of 2010 has been generous with farmers, and future price increases promise further improvements in farm incomes.