Regional Agriculture and Structural Policy

Agriculture Policy Is Health Policy

The Farm Bill is meant to supplement and secure farm incomes, ensure a stable food supply, and support the American farm economy. Over time, however, it has evolved into a system that creates substantial health impacts, both directly and indirectly. By generating more profit for food producers and less for family farmers; by effectively subsidizing the production of lower-cost fats, sugars, and...

Rising Regional Inequality in China: Policy Regimes and Structural Changes

Regional inequality is severe in China since regional development is uneven due to various initial conditions and government policies. We employ unit root tests allowing for structural breaks to alternative inequality measures from 1952 to 2000. Empirical results indicate that (1) the regional inequality is trend stationary with structural breaks rather than follow a random walk. Thus, ignoring...

Sustainable Agriculture and Public Policy

Regional Development in American Agriculture ∗

This paper uses the establishment of federal agricultural experiment stations to provide new evidence on the effects of university research on long-term regional development. Our analysis of county-level agricultural census data from 1870 to 2000 reveals that station establishment increased local crop revenue per acre for 30-40 years, but localization effects do not persist to the present day. ...

Structural Economic Changes in China and Vietnam: Policy Issues and Consequences for Agriculture*

This paper outlines sectoral economic changes that have occurred in China and Vietnam following their market reforms and rapid economic growth. Bothe economies have experienced increased urbanization and a decline in the relative contribution of agriculture to GDP and to employment. There has been considerable movement of labor from agricultural to nonagricultural employment. Such movements are...