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This special issue summarises initial research products of a World Bank three-year sponsored project (2006-08) addressing the effects of policy intervention in agriculture.
Lead Researcher: Professor Kym Anderson
Background
During the 1960s and 1970s, most developing countries imposed pro-urban and anti-agricultural policies, while many high-income countries restricted agricultural imports and subsidised their farmers. Both sets of policies inhibited economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries. Although progress has been made over the past two decades to reduce those policy biases, many trade- and welfare-reducing price distortions remain between agriculture and other sectors and within the agricultural sector of both rich and poor countries.
Comprehensive empirical studies of the disarray in world agricultural markets appeared approximately 20 years ago. Since then, the OECD has provided estimates each year of market distortions in high-income countries, but there have been no comparable estimates for the worlds developing countries. This project not only fills that
void for recent years but extends the estimates in a consistent and comparable way back in timeand provides analytical narratives for scores of countries that
shed light on the evolving nature and extent of policy interventions over the past half-century.
The first stage of this project involved more than 90 experts working in 75 countries, which produced estimates of direct and indirect distortions to agricultural incentive from 1950 to the present. As a whole, these national studies cover 92% of global agricultural GDP, offering thereby a very comprehensive overview of world policies.
Publications
The project has produced the following publications:
Books
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Anderson, K. and J. Swinnen (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Europes Transition Economies,
Washington DC: World Bank, June 2008
Paperback, 400 pages 6 x 9 ISBN: 0-8213-7419-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7419-1 SKU: 17419
This book provides an overview of the evolution of distortions to agricultural incentives caused by price and trade policies in the economies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia) that are transitioning away from central planning. The book includes country and subregional studies of the ten transition economies of
Central and Eastern Europe that joined the European Union in 2004 or 2007, of seven other large member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States,
and of Turkey Together these countries comprise over 90 percent of the ECA region's population and GDP. Sectoral, trade, and exchange rate policies in the
region have changed greatly since the dissolving of the Soviet Union in 1991, but price distortions in this region remain and must be reduced. The new
empirical indicators in these country studies provide a strong evidence-based foundation for evaluating policy options in the years ahead.
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Anderson, K. and A. Valdés(eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America, Washington DC: World Bank,
October 2008
Paperback, 450 pages 6 x 9 ISBN: 0-8213-7513-X ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7513-6
This book provides an overview of the evolution of distortions to agricultural incentives caused by price and trade policies in five economies of South America plus the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Together these countries comprise about 80 percent of the region's population, agricultural output, and overall GDP. Sectoral, trade, and exchange rate policies in the region have changed greatly since the 1950s, and there have been substantial reforms since the 1980s especially. Nonetheless, numerous price distortions in this region remain, others have been added, and there have even been some policy reversals in recent years. The new empirical indicators in these country studies provide a strong evidence-based
foundation for assessing the successes and failures of the past and for
evaluating policy options for the years ahead.
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Anderson, K. and W.A. Masters (eds.), Distortions
to Agricultural Incentives in Africa, Washington
DC: World Bank, due March 2009
ISBN: 0-8213-7652-7 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7652-2 SKU: 17652
This book provides an overview of the evolution of distortions to agricultural incentives caused by price and trade policies in the Arab Republic of Egypt plus 20 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa which account for about 90 percent of that region's population, farm households, agricultural output, and overall GDP. Sectoral, trade, and exchange rate policies in the region have changed greatly since the 1950s, and there have been substantial reforms since the 1980s. Nonetheless, numerous price distortions in this region remain and others have been added in recent years; and there has been some backsliding also, such as in Zimbabwe. The new
empirical indicators in these country studies provide a strong evidence-based foundation for assessing the successes and failures of the past and for
evaluating policy options for the years ahead.
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Anderson, K. and W. Martin (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington DC: World Bank, due February 2009
ISBN: 0-8213-7662-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7662-1 SKU: 17662
This book provides an overview of the evolution of distortions to agricultural incentives caused by price and trade policies in the 12 largest economies of East and South Asia. Together these countries constitute more than 95 percent of the region's population, agricultural output, and overall GDP. Sectoral, trade, and exchange rate policies in the region have changed greatly since the 1950s, and there have been substantial reforms since the 1980s, most notably in China and India. Nonetheless, numerous price distortions in this region remain and others have been added in recent years. The new empirical indicators in these country studies provide a strong evidence-based foundation for assessing the successes and failures of the past and for evaluating policy options for the years ahead.
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| Forthcoming work, due to be published in summer 2009 |
Anderson, K. (ed.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955 to 2007, London: Palgrave Macmillan and Washington DC: World Bank
ISBN: 0-8213-7665-9 ISBN-13: 978-0-8213-7665-2 SKU: 17665
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Working papers
To access the longer World Bank Working Paper versions of above books chapters and Appendices (more than 70 of
them), please click here.
Global Database and National Spreadsheets
To access the detailed national spreadsheets that underlay the distortion estimates in the above books, please click here.
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All estimates have been integrated into a global database that is freely
downloadable:
Anderson, Kym and Valenzuela, Ernesto, "Estimates of Global Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007", World Bank, Washington DC, October 2008, which is available here. |
Methodology paper
K. Anderson, M. Kurzweil, W. Martin, D. Sandri and E. Valenzuela, "Measuring Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, Revisited", World Trade Review 7(4): 1-30, October 2008.
Related documentation and resources for economy-wide or sectoral modelers:
Note Summarising Database Coverage, available here.
Valenzuela, E. and Anderson, K., (2008), "Alternative Agricultural Price Distortions for CGE Analysis of Developing Countries, 2004 and 1980-84", mimeo University of Adelaide, October 2008. Forthcoming as GTAP Research Memorandum.
- Tax rates
into the GTAP database, VIEWHAR resource, available here.
Dissemination
Kym Anderson has presented a range of seminars and conference presentations, including most recently at:
- World Trade Organization, Geneva, October 2008;
- OECD, Paris, October 2008.;
- International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, October 2008;
- World Food Prize Conference, on Agriculture in Global Development Over the Next Fifty Years, Des Moines, Iowa, October 2008;
- Asian Development Bank Institute's Annual Conference, Tokyo, December 2008; and
- International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium, Scottsdale, Arizona, December 2008.
Ernesto Valenzuela also has presented several seminars and conference presentations, including:
- Chinese Agricultural Trade Policy and the World Trade Organization, presentation at the Fourth Beijing Agricultural Trade Policy Dialogue, Beijing, China, November 2008;
- Agricultural Distortions, Implications for China, (with Kym Anderson) Presentation at the Fourth Beijing Agricultural Trade Policy Dialogue, Beijing, China, November 2008;
- Distortions in Global Agricultural Markets: A new Agricultural Distortions database of the last fifty years, (with Kym Anderson) presented at the 11th Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis. Helsinki, June 2008;
- Distortion in Agriculture: Consequences for Global Welfare, Farm Incomes and Markets, (with Kym Anderson) Seminar at:
- Asian Economic Centre seminar series. Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne, November 2008;
- 3rd International Conference on Regional Cooperation and Innovation in Asia. Pusan National University, Korea, November 2008.
- Distorted Agricultural Incentives and Australian Economic Development (with Kym Anderson), Invited Paper for the IATRC/KREI International Symposium on Globalization and the Rural-Urban Divide, Seoul National University, Korea, June 30 - July 1 2008; and
- How would global trade liberalization affect rural and regional incomes in Australia?, (with Kym Anderson and James Giesecke), Paper presented at the 37th Australian Conference of Economists - ACE08, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, October 2008.
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University of Adelaide contributors:
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Future work
The second stage of the project involves using econometrics and CGE modeling to estimate the political economy reasons behind the pattern of distortions across countries, commodities and over time, and the inequality, poverty and other economic effects of current versus alternative policy regimes for individual countries. There are more than 30 experts involved in this stage of the project.
Two books from Stage 2 will appear later in 2009, and working paper versions of the chapters will be uploaded later this summer to the official website.
Further information
Professor Kym Anderson
School of Economics
The University of Adelaide SA 5005
Australia
Tel.: +61 8 8303 4712
Fax: +61 8 8223 1460
Email: kym.anderson@adelaide.edu.au
The offical World Bank website section is available here.
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