World Agriculture In Disarray

Revised and updated, this edition makes use of new empirical material to examine the effect of market and trade restrictions on farm people. It argues that these policies have little or no effect on the welfare of such communities.

This book was first published in 1992. In the late twentieth century, the crisis in world agriculture had become increasingly evident as the protectionist agricultural policies of various countries distort the international market. Why had agricultural policies become more inward-looking as the world becomes increasingly interdependent economically? Disarray in World Food Markets addresses the nature and causes of this crisis in international trade policy. Its analysis of the effects of these food policies is complemented by a quantitative review of the long-term trends in world food markets. The study also extensively examines the reasons why governments choose to implement distortionary policies. This ambitious book, based on a dynamic, multi-commodity model of world food markets, will be an important reference work for all with an interest in trade policy, particularly in countries active in the trade negotiations.

Agricultural Policy in Disarray provides fascinating, detailed, and contemporary evidence of how rent-seeking by small, well-organized interest groups results in government policies that do little good and much harm.

Provides a context for understanding the agricultural aspects of the GATT, the CAP, and EC-U.S. relations

This study surveys the prospects worldwide for food and agriculture, including fisheries and forestry, for the next 20 years. Emphasis is placed on food security and nutrition, and the improved sustainability of agricultural and rural development.

D. Gale Johnson, one of the world's foremost agricultural economists, has over the last five decades changed the conduct of research on agricultural economics and policy. The papers brought together in The Economics of Agriculture reveal the breadth and depth of his influence on the creation of modern agricultural economics. Volume 1 collects for the first time in one source Johnson's most important work. These classic papers explore the consequences of government intervention in United States and world agriculture; the economics of agricultural supply and of rural labor and human capital issues; and the analysis of agricultural productivity in poor countries, including the centrally planned economies of China and Eastern Europe. Models of precise reasoning and powerful empirical research, the papers cover a wide range of topics—from U.S. commodity price policy to the economics of population control and farm policy reform in China. Volume 1 includes a definitive bibliography of Johnson's published writings. Volume 2 presents twenty-two papers by Johnson's former students and colleagues. International in scope, these papers explore themes and topics inspired by Johnson's work, including agricultural policy and U.S. farm prices; European Common Agricultural Policy; and agricultural and rural development in the Third World. Contributors to Volume 2 are David G. Abler, John M. Antle, Richard R. Barichello, Andrew P. Barkley, Karen Brooks, David S. Bullock, Robert E. Evenson, B. Delworth Gardner, Bruce L. Gardner, Dale M. Hoover, Wallace E. Huffman, Paul R. Johnson, Yoav Kislev, Justin Yifu Lin, Yair Mundlak, John Nash, Keijuro Otsuka, Willis Peterson, Todd E. Petzel, Vernon W. Ruttan, Maurice Schiff, G. Edward Schuh, Theodore W. Schultz, James Snyder, Vasant Sukhatme, Daniel A. Sumner, Vinod Thomas, George Tolley, and Alberto Valdes.