| The processes of agricultural policy decision-making in the East Asian economies of Japan, Taiwan, and Korea are characterized by the complex interactions of competing special interest groups in their respective political arenas. An analytical model is designed to investigate how adjustments in rice price policies are endogenously related to the political economic forces associated with macroeconomic changes. The model is tested against the case of Korean rice price policy, which has not been satisfactorily explained in earlier modeling efforts. A political preference function is used to estimate the relative political weights of producers, consumers, and government over a 25-year period (1961-1985) during which major macroeconomic changes occurred. A... |
