Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Liberalisation
Kinds of Liberalisation Selected AbstractsAnalysing Macro-Poverty Linkages of External Liberalisation: Gaps, Achievements and AlternativesDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2005Bernhard G. Gunter CGE modelling has dominated analysis of the impact of external liberalisation on poverty. This article provides a structuralist critique of standard neo-classical CGE models. It highlights five sets of gaps and partial achievements in the modelling of issues affecting the poverty impact of macroeconomic policies: duality and structural rigidities; efficiency gains and quota rents; the investment and savings specification; the nature of public expenditures; and the modelling of financial fragility, risk premia and issues of credibility. It outlines a model that makes it possible to analyse more plausible stories about the impact of both current and capital account liberalisation and questions the realism of existing approaches to ex-ante poverty impact assessment. [source] Agrifood Sector Liberalisation and the Rise of Supermarkets in Former State-controlled Economies: A Comparative OverviewDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2004Thomas Reardon Former state-controlled economies (FSCEs) have become the most important destination of global retail chain investments. These economies, which spread from North Africa, across Central and Eastern Europe, to East Asia, include more than one and a half billion consumers and a large share of the world's agricultural area and poor farmers. They have undergone an often radical transformation of their agrifood system over the past decade. The take-off of supermarkets in FSCEs started seriously in the mid-late 1990s, and is now moving fast. This article compares FSCE experience in the supermarket revolution and considers its implications for policy-makers and rural development practitioners. [source] Financial Liberalisation in Southern Africa: An AssessmentDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2004Obert Nyawata In the early 1990s many Southern African economies embarked on financial liberalisation. Although it is too soon to carry out sophisticated econometric analysis of this change in policy, the available empirical evidence may be inspected to see whether it lends support to advocates of financial liberalisation. In this article we explore the avenues through which financial liberalisation might be expected to exert an influence. Consistent with much of the existing literature, we discover that a degree of agnosticism is warranted. Financial liberalisation is no panacea and will not improve economic performance unless accompanied by sound economic policies. It remains difficult to isolate the effects of financial liberalisation from the data available. [source] Market Liberalisation, Vertical Integration and Price Behaviour in Tanzania's Coffee AuctionDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Anna A. Temu Whether market liberalisation can promote agricultural development in Africa depends on how well existing institutions can facilitate trade by private agents. This article assesses the performance of the Tanzania coffee marketing system after liberalisation and the emergence of private, vertically integrated exporters (VIEs). Increasing producer prices, declining marketing margins, and the continued provision of a useful auction for coffee that is delivered by traders who are not VIEs all suggest a degree of success for liberalisation. The presence of VIEs seems to have provided investment to reduce marketing costs, whilst a sufficient number of competing firms has limited non-competitive behaviour in the market for coffee that is traded at the auction by non-VIEs. [source] Towards the Spatial Patterns of Sectoral Adjustments to Trade Liberalisation: The Case of NAFTA in MexicoGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2007BENJAMIN FABER ABSTRACT A recent string of "new economic geography" (NEG) models has set focus on the impacts of trade liberalisation on the intra-national distribution of economic activity. What the existing contributions have in common is a basic two-sector assumption (agriculture/manufacturing) and a resulting focus on the question of whether liberalisation leads to a greater concentration of aggregate manufacturing activity. Reconsidering these models from a multi-sectoral perspective, the aim is to allow for sectoral differences in the spatial adjustments to liberalisation. This introduces a conceptual nexus between comparative advantage (CA)-type sectoral recomposition effects of trade and NEG-type spatial adjustments. In the analysis of Mexican manufacturing location 1993,2003, incipient empirical evidence is found in favour of the hypothesis that sectors characterised by a revealed comparative advantage and/or cross-border intermediate supplies grow faster in regions with good foreign market access, whereas import competing ones gain in relative terms in regions with higher "natural protection" from poor market access. The relevancy of the proposed NEG/CA framework concerns both efficiency and equity objectives of trade adjustment policies, and opens a new perspective on the long-run effects of trade on spatial inequality. [source] The Governance of Rural Land in a Liberalised WorldJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2007Ian Hodge Abstract Liberalisation of agricultural policies reduces the influence of policy on land-use decisions, but environmental policy objectives remain. Governance provides an approach that recognises the role of institutions and collective action. The formulation of environmental policy objectives in terms of the provision of public goods raises questions as to the role of economic valuation and as to whether the definition of ,goods' may misdirect policy attention. An alternative approach relates to ecosystem services and sees management issues in terms of ecosystem resilience and the adaptive governance of socio-ecological systems. Governance involves a mix of regulation, markets, government incentives and collective action. Regulation sets the domain within which markets operate and social judgements as to property rights are required as a basis for exchanges. Depending on commodity prices, agri-environment schemes may be required either to reduce agricultural production intensity or to keep land under production. The diffuse nature of the environmental benefits and costs of land uses, the complexity of ecosystems and the need to co-ordinate land management decisions indicate a role for local adaptive co-management of land resources. Governments play a major role in supporting the institutional framework within which this can take place. [source] Financial Liberalisation and Economic Development: An AssessmentJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 3 2004Paul Auerbach Abstract., The financial sector has always played a central role in economic development, but analysis of its precise role has been hampered by the emphasis on ,real' factors in the main stream of economic thought and the static nature of financial theory. Empirical studies confirm the importance of finance to economic development, but are indecisive on the efficaciousness of the widely advocated policies associated with financial liberalisation. To be successful, strategies for financial liberalisation must deal with problems generated by asymmetric information and have policies to promote competition, the disclosure of information and the maintenance of governmental integrity. [source] The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Economic Growth: Evidence from a Quantile Regression AnalysisKYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 4 2008Neil Foster SUMMARY Individual country experience with trade liberalisation has been mixed. This paper examines the relationship between liberalisation and growth for a sample of 75 liberalising countries. To consider the importance of heterogeneity in the growth response to liberalisation this paper employs quantile regression methods which allow the coefficient on liberalisation to vary across the conditional growth distribution. The results suggest that countries experiencing the lowest rates of growth benefit most from liberalisation. The results also suggest that while such countries benefit most in the long-run they are the most likely to suffer from short-run negative effects of liberalisation. [source] Liberalisation of legal services in Europe: progress and prospectsLEGAL STUDIES, Issue 2 2010Robert G Lee The usual excuse for regulation is the failure of market provision. This paper examines legal services and suggests that, in the case of provision of commercial legal services to corporate clients, true events of market failure, to support the case for regulation, and more particularly self-regulation, are hard to locate. It further argues that the market for legal services is heavily stratified with a commercial legal services market effectively operating quite separately to that of professional legal services for private clients. In consequence, it may be more effective and proportionate to adopt differentiated strategies of regulation. This might be achieved by shifting the focus of regulation away from the individual practitioner, as is historically the case, towards law firms as such. This simple step, it is suggested, could facilitate much greater liberalisation of the market for legal services. This proposal is explored with particular reference to freedom of services within the European single market and, as a backdrop to the paper, progress to date in facilitating cross-border legal services in Europe is reviewed. [source] THE CO-OPERATIVE REFORM PROCESS IN TANZANIA AND SRI LANKAANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 3 2010Johnston Birchall ABSTRACT**:,This article reports on findings from a three year study of co-operatives in Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The article asks three questions: why do co-operative sectors need reforming; what is the co-operative reform process; and why has reform succeeded in some countries but not others? It provides a short history of co-operatives in three phases: the colonial period, the post-colonial nationalist period and the period of market liberalisation. It shows that the control exercised by colonial governments was deepened under nationalist governments, with co-operatives becoming parastatals. Liberalisation brought a sustained attempt by international agencies to reassert the distinctive nature of co-operatives as member-owned businesses. However, co-ops were ill-prepared to adjust to a competitive market and the lifting of government regulation; many failed, some were corrupted, while a few became truly member-controlled. The article draws on documentary analysis and key informant interviews to provide accounts of the reform process in Tanzania and Sri Lanka. It finds that the process is incomplete and often contested. [source] The selective use of rapid aneuploidy screening in prenatal diagnosisAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS AND GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Jan E. DICKINSON Aims: To evaluate the diagnostic utility and costing of the selective use of rapid aneuploidy screening (RAS) for chorion villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis specimens. Methods: CVS and amniocenteses performed between 2000 and 2006 were identified. Cases were subdivided into two groups: (i) RAS in addition to long-term culture and (ii) long-term chromosome culture alone. The frequency of RAS, the proportion of abnormal results and the cytogenetic costings were reviewed. Results: A total of 3315 procedures were performed: 730 CVS and 2585 amniocenteses. An abnormal karyotype culture was present in 366 of 3315 (11%). For CVS an abnormal culture was present in 164 (22.5%). RAS (short-term culture/direct preparation) was selectively used in 399 cases (54.6%) with an abnormal result in 128 (32% of RAS). For amniocentesis, 206 chromosome abnormalities were present (8.0% of specimens). RAS (interphase FISH) was selectively used in 580 amniocenteses (22.4%). FISH was requested in 95 (66.4%) of the 143 abnormal cases potentially detectable with standard probes. There was a progressive increase in utilisation of RAS for amniocentesis (8.9% in 2000 to 43.3% of cases in 2006, P < 0.001). CVS RAS was stable. This liberalisation resulted in a fourfold increase in expenditure for FISH and cost/abnormality detected ($A970 per abnormal result in 2000 to $A4015 per abnormal result in 2006). Conclusion: The selective use of prenatal RAS results in a reasonably high detection rate for chromosomal anomalies. Liberalisation of RAS, however, is an expensive cytogenetic model. An approach based on some predictive level of risk combined with resource funding levels may be a more pragmatic approach. [source] Trade Liberalisation and the Australian Labor PartyAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 4 2002Andrew Leigh The three most substantial decisions to reduce Australia's trade barriers , in 1973, 1988 and 1991 , were made by Labor Governments. Labor's policy shift preceded the conversion of social democratic parties in other countries to trade liberalisation. To understand why this was so, it is necessary to consider trade policy as being shaped by more than interest groups and political institutions. Drawing on interviews with the main political figures, including Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Button, this article explores why the intellectual arguments for free trade had such a powerful impact on Labor's leadership, and how those leaders managed to implement major tariff cuts, while largely maintaining party unity. [source] Does female board representation influence firm performance?CORPORATE GOVERNANCE, Issue 2 2007The Danish evidence Board diversity has become a major issue within corporate governance where a number of studies seek to explore the impact of diversity on firm performance. The debate focuses on questions such as whether a corporation's board should reflect the firm's stakeholders or be more in line with society in general. This article uses a sample of listed Danish firms during the period of 1998,2001 in a cross sectional analysis. Despite that fact that Denmark has gone very far in the liberalisation of women, Danish board rooms are still to a large extent dominated by men. Contrary to a number of other studies, this article does not find any significant link between firm performance as measured by Tobin's Q and female board representation. This is also the case for board members' educational background as well as the proportion of foreigners. It is argued that board members with an unconventional background are socialised unconsciously adopting the ideas of the majority of conventional board members, which entails that a potential performance effect does not materialise. [source] Revenue Mobilisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges from Globalisation I , Trade ReformDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2010Michael Keen This is the first of two articles evaluating the nature and extent of, and possible responses to, two of the central challenges that globalisation poses for revenue mobilisation in sub-Saharan Africa: trade liberalisation, and corporate tax competition. Both articles use a new dataset with the features needed to address these issues meaningfully: a disentangling of tariff from commodity tax revenue, and a distinction between resource-related and other revenues. This first article describes that dataset, and provides a broad picture of revenue developments in the region between 1980 and 2005. Countries' experiences have varied, but the overall picture is of non-resource revenues having been essentially stagnant. Within this, however, and with exceptions, reductions in trade tax revenue have been largely offset by increased revenue from domestic sources. [source] The Economic Partnership Agreements: Rationale, Misperceptions and Non-trade AspectsDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 5 2008Louise Curran The European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries entered a new era in 2008. The Cotonou trade regime and the WTO waiver legitimising it have expired, and the long anticipated, and much debated, move to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) has begun. This article explains the background and analyses the ,alternatives' to EPAs, in order to tackle common misperceptions. Moving on from what has been the focus of debates, namely, the reciprocal liberalisation required under WTO rules, it sheds some light on the non-goods trade aspects of EPAs which, while integral to economic policy, are inherently hard to quantify and often skimmed over in existing studies or addressed in ideological terms. [source] Analysing Macro-Poverty Linkages of External Liberalisation: Gaps, Achievements and AlternativesDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2005Bernhard G. Gunter CGE modelling has dominated analysis of the impact of external liberalisation on poverty. This article provides a structuralist critique of standard neo-classical CGE models. It highlights five sets of gaps and partial achievements in the modelling of issues affecting the poverty impact of macroeconomic policies: duality and structural rigidities; efficiency gains and quota rents; the investment and savings specification; the nature of public expenditures; and the modelling of financial fragility, risk premia and issues of credibility. It outlines a model that makes it possible to analyse more plausible stories about the impact of both current and capital account liberalisation and questions the realism of existing approaches to ex-ante poverty impact assessment. [source] Financial Liberalisation in Southern Africa: An AssessmentDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 3 2004Obert Nyawata In the early 1990s many Southern African economies embarked on financial liberalisation. Although it is too soon to carry out sophisticated econometric analysis of this change in policy, the available empirical evidence may be inspected to see whether it lends support to advocates of financial liberalisation. In this article we explore the avenues through which financial liberalisation might be expected to exert an influence. Consistent with much of the existing literature, we discover that a degree of agnosticism is warranted. Financial liberalisation is no panacea and will not improve economic performance unless accompanied by sound economic policies. It remains difficult to isolate the effects of financial liberalisation from the data available. [source] Growth and Poverty Reduction in Uganda, 1999,2000: Panel Data EvidenceDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 4 2003Klaus Deininger To explore factors underlying growth and poverty reduction in Africa while overcoming some of the limitations of cross-country analysis, this article uses micro-level survey and panel-data evidence from Uganda spanning 1992,2000. The high elasticity of both income growth and poverty reduction with respect to agricultural output (coffee) prices confirms the benefits from Uganda's decisive liberalisation of output markets. It also suggests the importance of product diversification to protect the poor against price shocks and the potential of cotton-market improvements in tackling persistent poverty in the North. The importance of improving access to basic education and health care emerges more clearly than in cross-country analysis, but benefits depend on complementary investments in electricity and other infrastructure, and reductions in civil strife. [source] The Impact of Trade and Exchange-rate Policy Reforms on North African Manufactured ExportsDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2002Khalid Sekkat Three indicators capture the impact of exchange-rate policy in fostering manufactured exports from North Africa: changes in the real effective exchange rate (REER), its volatility, and its misalignment. The impact of trade policy is examined using a trade liberalisation indicator. Export supply equations are estimated for three manufacturing industries: textiles, chemicals, and food. The results suggest that trade and exchange-rate policies matter for export performance, as is evidenced by the negative influence exerted independently by real exchange-rate misalignment and volatility and by the positive influence of trade liberalisation. [source] Investment and Competition Policy in the WTO: Issues for Developing CountriesDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 1 2002Oliver Morrissey This article uses the case of trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) to examine the liberalisation of investment and its potential impact on developing countries. Very few developing countries actually use TRIMs to any appreciable degree, but, when taken in conjunction with the broader liberalisation of investment, the 1994 TRIMs Agreement has significant implications that will constrain governments' policy options and require issues of competition policy to be addressed. Multilateral competition policy would be difficult to agree and implement and the article considers alternative strategies that developing countries could adopt. [source] Market Liberalisation, Vertical Integration and Price Behaviour in Tanzania's Coffee AuctionDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2001Anna A. Temu Whether market liberalisation can promote agricultural development in Africa depends on how well existing institutions can facilitate trade by private agents. This article assesses the performance of the Tanzania coffee marketing system after liberalisation and the emergence of private, vertically integrated exporters (VIEs). Increasing producer prices, declining marketing margins, and the continued provision of a useful auction for coffee that is delivered by traders who are not VIEs all suggest a degree of success for liberalisation. The presence of VIEs seems to have provided investment to reduce marketing costs, whilst a sufficient number of competing firms has limited non-competitive behaviour in the market for coffee that is traded at the auction by non-VIEs. [source] Housing Wealth and UK ConsumptionECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 4 2006Article first published online: 13 NOV 200 There is widespread disagreement about the role of housing wealth in explaining consumption. However, much of the empirical literature is marred by poor controls for the common drivers both of house prices and consumption, such as income, income growth expectations, interest rates, credit supply conditions, other assets and indicators of income uncertainty (e.g. changes in the unemployment rate). For instance, while the easing of credit supply conditions is usually followed by a house price boom, failure to control for the direct effect of credit liberalisation on consumption can over-estimate the effect of housing wealth or collateral on consumption. This paper (Janine Aron, John Muellbauer and Anthony Murphyi, October 2006) estimates an empirical model for UK consumption from 1972 to 2005, grounded in theory, and with more complete empirical controls than hitherto used. [source] Trade liberalisation and CAP reform in the EUECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 1 2006Article first published online: 26 JAN 200 Europe has underperformed relative to its peers and to its own previous performance over the last two decades. That underperformance reflects a range of factors, from structural rigidities in labour and capital markets, to inappropriate macroeconomic policy. But one set of policy measures that could contribute to improved economic performance in the future is trade liberalisation and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This article examines the benefits that could accrue to the UK, EU and global economies from the liberalisation of trade in goods and from the replacement of the current CAP with other, more productive forms of spending. It finds that the current barriers to trade in the EU, and the resources dedicated to the maintenance of the CAP, are set to cost the EU some 2% of GDP by 2015 if they remain in place. Moreover, this cost falls disproportionately on the poorer members of society. [source] Mortgage credit conditions in the UKECONOMIC OUTLOOK, Issue 3 2002John Muellbauer It is widely perceived that credit conditions for UK consumers, particularly in the mortgage market, have been radically liberalized since the 1970s. The implications for the housing market and consumer spending have been important. This article by John Muellbauer draws on a 1997 paper by the author which examined data from the Survey of Mortgage Lenders to learn, from information about loan-to-value ratios of first-time buyers, classified by region, about changes in mortgage credit conditions. By controlling for economic and demographic influences on credit conditions, a single time-varying index of mortgage credit conditions was extracted from these SML data. This index rises in the 1980s, peaking towards the end of the decade. It retraces part of its rise in the early 1990s before rising again by 1995 to a level not far below the previous peak. The article considers whether more recent data suggest a further liberalisation of mortgage credit conditions. It draws on joint research with others to discuss possible implications for consumer spending, house prices, the volume of property transactions and mortgage defaults. [source] Towards the Spatial Patterns of Sectoral Adjustments to Trade Liberalisation: The Case of NAFTA in MexicoGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2007BENJAMIN FABER ABSTRACT A recent string of "new economic geography" (NEG) models has set focus on the impacts of trade liberalisation on the intra-national distribution of economic activity. What the existing contributions have in common is a basic two-sector assumption (agriculture/manufacturing) and a resulting focus on the question of whether liberalisation leads to a greater concentration of aggregate manufacturing activity. Reconsidering these models from a multi-sectoral perspective, the aim is to allow for sectoral differences in the spatial adjustments to liberalisation. This introduces a conceptual nexus between comparative advantage (CA)-type sectoral recomposition effects of trade and NEG-type spatial adjustments. In the analysis of Mexican manufacturing location 1993,2003, incipient empirical evidence is found in favour of the hypothesis that sectors characterised by a revealed comparative advantage and/or cross-border intermediate supplies grow faster in regions with good foreign market access, whereas import competing ones gain in relative terms in regions with higher "natural protection" from poor market access. The relevancy of the proposed NEG/CA framework concerns both efficiency and equity objectives of trade adjustment policies, and opens a new perspective on the long-run effects of trade on spatial inequality. [source] Skill Formation and Utilisation in the Post-Soviet Transition: Higher Education Planning in Post-Soviet GeorgiaHIGHER EDUCATION QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2010Irakli GvaramadzeArticle first published online: 1 MAR 2010 Changes in the former Soviet system had a dramatic influence on higher education in Georgia. The main objective of the current article is to analyse implications of the post-Soviet transition for the skill formation and skill utilisation system in Georgia. In particular, the study analyses recent trends in Georgian higher education including privatisation and economic liberalisation. The discussion builds upon theories of transition and relevance of skill formation theories to the post-Soviet transition. The article argues that increasing competition among public universities and newly emerged private universities has not improved the quality of higher education provision. On the contrary, it has contributed to an imbalance between the labour market's demand for skills and awarded qualifications, a mismatch and irrelevance of skills and high unemployment rates among university graduates. The article demonstrates that economic approaches in the transition context could not explain the complex logic between the skill formation and skill utilisation mechanisms. It further concludes that the discrepancies between the skill formation and skill utilisation systems had a negative impact upon skill modernisation in Georgia. [source] Tourism flows between India and SingaporeINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH, Issue 5 2003Faizal Yahya The tourism industry has become increasingly important as a source of revenue and employment for countries in Southeast Asia. Within the Southeast Asian region, intraregional travel has also seen an upsurge since the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. More attention is also being paid to attract other Asian tourists from China, India, Japan and South Korea to the region. Competition to be tourism hubs in the region has seen countries such as Singapore developing an array of incentives to entice inbound foreign tourists to its shores. The aim of this paper is to examine the growing importance of India as a source of inbound tourists for countries in Southeast Asia and in particular Singapore. India is an apt case study because of its long historical and cultural links with the region. Another main motivation for examining inbound tourists from India is India's engagement with the Southeast Asian region through its ,Look East' policy. Following from its economic reforms and liberalisation of 1991, India has sought to strengthen economic links with ASEAN member states through a range of economic sectors including tourism. The 1991 Indian economic liberalisation has also created an upsurge of Indian business travellers who are exploring investment and business opportunities in the Southeast Asian region. With India's economic liberalisation of 1991, an expanding middle class has come to view foreign travel as a necessity. In turn, ASEAN member states, such as Singapore in particular, which is heavily dependent on its services sector, including tourism, for revenue, have chosen to regionalise its tourism operations by collaborating and investing in projects in India to woo more Indian tourists. Competition in the tourism sector among ASEAN countries has increased the urgency for Singapore to reinvent itself to attract foreign tourists and implement a number of initiatives to maintain its share of the tourism market. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Golbalisation, Regional Integration, International MigrationINTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 165 2000Georges Photios Tapinos After having recalled the two-way links between international migration and development and having placed migratory movements in the con-textof globalisation, the author examines the new situation created by the strengthening of immigration control policies and the relevance of the alternative strategy which considers free trade as a substitute for migration. He examines to what extent the effects of economic liberalisation are likely to modify the decision to emigrate. In conclusion, he outlines various impli-cations for migration policies. [source] Multilateral Trade and Agricultural Policy Reforms in Sugar MarketsJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2006Amani Elobeid Q18; F10 Abstract We analyse the impact of trade liberalisation, removal of production subsidies and elimination of consumption distortions in world sugar markets using a partial-equilibrium international sugar model calibrated on 2002 market data and current policies. The removal of trade distortions alone induces a 27% price increase while the removal of all trade and production distortions induces a 48% increase in 2011/2012 relative to the baseline. Aggregate trade expands moderately, but location of production and trade patterns change substantially. Protectionist Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (the EU, Japan, the US) experience an import expansion or export reduction and a significant contraction of production in unfettered markets. Competitive producers in both OECD countries (Australia) and non-OECD countries (Brazil, Cuba), and even some protected producers (Indonesia, Turkey), expand production when all distortions are removed. Consumption distortions have marginal impacts on world markets and the location of production. We discuss the significance of these results in the context of mounting pressures to increase market access in highly protected OECD countries and the impact on non-OECD countries. [source] Tariff Peaks for Agricultural and Food Products: their Incidence and Alternatives for their RemovalJOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2002Javier Fernández The aim of the paper is the analysis of the current market access situation in global agricultural markets for the post-Uruguay Round period. It identifies those commodity groups in the food and agricultural sector for which tariff peaks exist, and examines how various tariff-cutting formulae would affect their levels. The related issues of tariff complexity and of the administration of Tariff Rate Quotas are also reviewed here. Results show that the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreement has not significantly reduced agricultural protection, since high tariff peaks and nontransparent tariff structures still persist. A repetition of the Uruguay Round cuts would not solve the problem of high protection levels either, and only the introduction of more aggressive harmonising formulae could lead to a true liberalisation of world agricultural and food markets. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||