SABIIA - Sistema Aberto e Integrado de Informação em Agricultura (Sabiia)

This paper uses the border effect estimate from a gravity model to assess the level of trade integration in agricultural markets between 22 OECD countries, over the 1995-2002 period. The empirical analysis shows that using a gravity equation derived from theory, in the estimation of the border effect, matters. A representative estimate of the border effect shows that crossing a national border into the OECD countries induces a trade-reduction effect by a factor of 8. This average value masks substantial differences in market access across the country groups considered, with higher value in trade between EU countries and lower in trade between CEEC countries. However, the trade integration between CEECs and others OECDs increases substantially in the...

AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES ADOPTION: NEW EVIDENCE FROM LOMBARDY REGION

Palavras-chave: Agricultural trade; Border effect; Gravity equation; OECDs; International Relations/Trade; F13; F14; Q17.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24543

Bertoni, Danilo; Cavicchioli, Daniele; Pretolani, Roberto; Olper, Alessandro.

As a consequence of the ‘greening’ process of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) the demand for evaluation of actual agri-environmental measures (AEMs) calls for a deeper analysis of this policy instrument implementation. The idea behind this paper is that farmers’ willingness to participate is a necessary but not a sufficient condition in explaining the AEMs local uptake. Specifically, we test whether AEMs adoption depends both on farms and farmers’ characteristics, and on the local political and institutional framework, as well. Discriminating between genuine farmer incentive and attitude towards AEMs from the role played by the local institutional environment, appears a crucial step toward a better understanding of agri-environmental schemes....

Consitutional Rules and Agricultural Policy Outcomes

Palavras-chave: Agro - Environmental measures; Lombardy region; CAP; Agricultural and Food Policy; Political Economy; Q10; Q18.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44848

The analysis deals with the effect of constitutional rules on agricultural policy outcomes in a panel of 74 developing and developed countries, observed in the 1955-2005 period. Testable hypotheses are drawn from recent develop in comparative politics that see political institutions as key elements in shaping public policies. We focus the attention on the effect of both broad political reforms – reforms in (and out of) democracy – and on narrow details of democracy, such as electoral rules and forms of government. Using differences-in-differences estimation we find a positive effect of a transition into democracy on agricultural protection. However, the average effect masks substantial heterogeneities across different forms of democracy. Transitions into...

Constitutional Rules and Agricultural Policy Outcomes

Palavras-chave: Constitutional Rules; Agricultural Protection; Differences-in-differences estimation; Agricultural and Food Policy.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/43870

Democracy and Agricultural Protection: Parametric and Semi-parametric Matching Estimates

This paper deals with the effect of constitutional rules on agricultural policy outcomes in a panel of observations for more than 70 developing and developed countries in the 1955-2005 period. Testable hypotheses are drawn from recent developments in the comparative politics literature that see political institutions as key elements in shaping public policies. Using differences-in-differences regressions we find a positive effect of a transition into democracy on agricultural protection. However, this average effect masks substantial heterogeneities across different forms of democracy. Indeed, what matters are transitions to proportional (as opposed to majoritarian) democracies, as well as to permanent (as opposed to temporary) democracies. Moreover, while...

Tipo: Working or Discussion Paper

Palavras-chave: Distorted incentives; Agricultural and trade policy reforms; National agricultural development; Comparative Political Economics; Agricultural Distortions; Constitutional Rules; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Relations/Trade; F13; F14; Q17; Q18; D72; H23; O13; P16.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/50304

Olper, Alessandro; Falkowski, Jan; Swinnen, Johan F.M..

We estimate the effect of democratic transitions on agricultural protection in a sample of 74 developing and developed countries, observed in the 1955-2005 period. We employ both differences-in-differences regressions and semi-parametric matching methods, exploiting the time series and cross-sectional variation in the data. Our semi-parametric matching estimates show that parametric methods might underestimate the true effect of democracy on agricultural protection. We find a strong increase in agricultural protection (reduce in taxation) after a country transition to democracy. Specifically a democratic transition increases agricultural protection by about 9 percent points. However, the effect is asymmetric as the effect of leaving democracy on protection...

Does Common Agricultural Policy Reduce Farm Labour Migration? A Panel Data Analysis Across EU Regions

Palavras-chave: Democratic Reforms; Agricultural Distortions; Comparative Political Economics; Agricultural and Food Policy; Political Economy; D72; F13; O13; P16; Q18.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/49313

Olper, Alessandro; Raimondi, Valentina; Cavicchioli, Daniele; Vigani, Mauro.

This paper deals with the determinants of labour out-migration from agriculture across 153 EU regions over the 1990-2008 period. The central aim is to shed light on the role played by CAP payments on this important adjustment process. Using static and dynamic panel data methods, we show that standard neo-classic drivers, like the relative income and the relative labour share, represented significant determinants of the inter-sectoral migration of the agricultural labour. Overall, CAP payments have contributed significantly to job creation in agriculture, although the magnitude of the economic effect is quite small. Moreover, Pillar I subsidies have exerted an effect from three to five times stronger than Pillar II payments.

Elasticity of trade flow to trade barriers: A comparison among emerging estimation techniques

Palavras-chave: Out-farm Migration; CAP Payments; Labour Markets; Panel Data Analysis; Agricultural and Food Policy; Labor and Human Capital; Q12; Q18; O13; J21; J43; J60.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/114597

The objective of this study has been to analyze the sensitivity of trade flow to trade barriers from gravity equations, using different econometric techniques recently highlighted in the literature. Specifically, we compare a benchmark OLS fixed effects specification a la Feenstra (2002), with three emerging estimation methods: the standard Heckman correction for selection bias, to account for zero trade flow; its extension, recently proposed by Helpman et al. (2008), to control for firm heterogeneity; and, finally, the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) technique to correct for the presence of heteroskedasticity, first proposed by Santos Silva and Tenreyro (2006). Our gravity model includes trade among 211 exporter and 104 importer countries, in 18...

Explaining National Border Effects in the Quad Food Trade

Palavras-chave: Gravity model; Trade Elasticity; Food trade; International Relations/Trade.

Ano: 2002

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44119

Starting from a theoretically consistent gravity model, this paper first provides estimates of bilateral 'border effects' in food trade among Quad countries (Canada, USA, Japan and EU) at the ISIC 4-digit level. Then, it investigates the underlying reasons of border effect, assessing the role played by policy barriers (tariffs and non-tariff barriers) with respect to barriers unrelated to trade policy, such as information related costs and cultural proximity. In contrast with several previous findings, we show that policy barriers are part of the story in explaining the strong trade reduction effect induced by national borders, and this is especially true when we control for the endogeneity of trade policy to imports, as suggested by political economy...

Implementation of EU Agri-Environmental Measures at the Regional Level: Economic and Political Constraints

Palavras-chave: Border effect; Food trade; Market access; Gravity; QUAD countries; International Relations/Trade; F13; F14; Q17.

Ano: 2006

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/25467

Bertoni, Danilo; Peri, Massimo; Olper, Alessandro.

In this paper we apply a political objective function approach developed by Salhofer and Glebe (2004) to explain the high variability of agri-environmental program implementation at the EU regional level. The analysis covers 55 EU regions during the period 2001-2002, using basic data extracted from the Common Monitoring Indicators collected by the UE Commission for the programme's evaluation process. The main results indicate that the area covered by agri-environmental programs increases in regions where budget constraints are less severe and where the social demand for environmental amenities is more relevant. Moreover, agri-environmental programs are negatively related to the participation opportunity cost and show a non linear relation with the farmer's...

Market Access Asymmetry in Food Trade among Quad Countries

Palavras-chave: Agri-environmental measures; CAP; Regional and agricultural policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; Q18; Q24; Q28.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24777

This paper uses a gravity-like structure derived from a monopolistic competition model to measure market access among Canada, USA, Japan and EU Quad countries over the 1996-2001 period. We explore the overall asymmetry and 18 food industrial-level asymmetries of bilateral trade openness. Using actual bilateral estimates of tariffs and nontariff barriers, we investigate their role in explaining the trade reduction effect of national borders. A representative estimate of market access shows that higher asymmetries exist in USA, Canada and EU trade with Japan. Quite surprisingly, the last country is always more open than the reverse. Finally, we found that tariffs and NTBs explain a significant part of the border effects and that the NTB role is often...

Mass Media and Public Policy: Global Evidence from Agricultural Policies

Palavras-chave: Market access; Food trade; Asymmetry; Gravity; QUAD countries; International Relations/Trade; F13; F14; Q17.

Ano: 2005

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/24596

Olper, Alessandro; Swinnen, Johan F.M..

Mass media plays a crucial role in information distribution and thus in the political market and public policy making. Theory predicts that information provided by mass media reflects the media’s incentives to provide news to different types of groups in society, and affects these groups’ influence in policy-making. We use data on agricultural policy from 67 countries, spanning a wide range of development stages and media markets, to test these predictions. We find that, in line with theoretical hypotheses, public support to agriculture is strongly affected by the mass media. In particular, an increase in the share of informed voters, and a greater role of the private televisions in society is associated with policies which benefit the majority more: it...

PATTERNS AND DETERMINANTS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE COSTS IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Palavras-chave: Mass Media; Media Structure; Information; Agricultural Protection; Political Economy; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Development; Political Economy; Public Economics; D72; D83; Q18.

Ano: 2009

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/51694

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/16/07.

Political Competition and Support for Agriculture

Palavras-chave: Trade costs; Gravity; Processed Foods; Geography; Infrastructure; Trade Policy; Inequality; Agribusiness; International Relations/Trade; F1; F13; F14.

Ano: 2007

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/9799

Falkowski, Jan; Olper, Alessandro.

This paper investigates whether political competition plays an important role in determining the level of agricultural protection. In order to do so, we exploit variation in political and economic data from 74 developing and developed countries for the post-war period. Our results robustly show that the level of agricultural distortions is the higher, the higher is the level of political competition. We show that political competition may importantly complement other institutional aspects in determining policy choices. We investigate the heterogeneous effects of political competition across different electoral rules (majoritarian vs. proportional), forms of government (coalition vs. single-party) and level of incomes.

Preference erosion and the developing countries exports to the EU: a dynamic panel gravity approach

Palavras-chave: Political competition; Constitutional rules; Agricultural distortions; Agricultural and Food Policy; Institutional and Behavioral Economics; Political Economy; D72; D78; F13; O13; P16.

Ano: 2010

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/90799

Raimondi, Valentina; Scoppola, Margherita; Olper, Alessandro.

Since 2004 there has been a sharp decrease in border protection for the EU rice industry. Because the EU grants trade preferences to a considerable number of rice exporting developing countries, the reform implied preference erosion as well. By addressing the impact of preference erosion on developing countries rice exports to the EU, this paper contributes two original insights to the literature: first, by proposing a new empirical approach to compute the preference margin when tariff rate quotas are in force which is based on the assumption of the existence of fixed costs and economies of scale in international trade; second, by estimating the trade elasticities of preferences by means of a dynamic panel gravity equation to deal with the issues of...

The border effect in agricultural markets between European Union, OECD and LDC countries

Palavras-chave: Trade Preferences; Gravity Equation; Tariff Rate Quotas; EU Rice Policy; GMM; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Relations/Trade; F13; Q17; F14.

Ano: 2011

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/103391

The Political Economy of EU Agri-environmental measures: An empirical Assessment at the Regional Level

Palavras-chave: Border effect; Gravity equation; Agricultural trade; European Union; LDCs; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Relations/Trade; F13; F14; Q17.

Ano: 2004

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/37817

Bertoni, Danilo; Olper, Alessandro.

The paper deals with the political economy determinants of EU agri-environmental measures (AEMs) applied by 59 regional/country units, during the 2001-2004 period. Five different groups of determinants, spanning from positive and negative externalities to political institutions, are highlighted and tested using an econometric model. The main results suggest that AEMs implementation is mostly affected by the strength of farm lobbies, political institutions and the demand for positive externalities. On the contrary, AEMs do not seem implemented by the willingness to address negative externalities.

The sensitivity of trade flows to trade barriers

Palavras-chave: Agri-environmental Measures; Political Economy; EU Regions; Environmental Economics and Policy.

Ano: 2008

URL: http://purl.umn.edu/44435

Raimondi, Valentina; Olper, Alessandro.

This study analyzes the sensitivity of trade flows to trade barriers from gravity equations, using different econometric techniques recently highlighted in the literature. Specifically, we compare a benchmark OLS fixed effects specification a la Feenstra (2002) with three emerging estimation methods: the standard Heckman correction for selection bias, to account for zero trade flows; the Eaton and Tamura (1994) Tobit estimator, to solve limited-dependent variable issues; and, finally, the Poisson pseudo-maximum-likelihood (PPML) technique, to correct for the presence of heteroskedasticity. Our gravity model includes trade among 193 exporter and 99 importer countries, in 18 food industry sectors. The paper achieves two goals: First it provides estimates of...