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Berichte Uber Landwirtschaft, 1990

熊本学園大学文学・言語学論集, Dec 1, 1997

Journal of Agricultural Science and Applications, 2012

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive polic... more The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive policy. Distributive policies aim at correcting market outcomes according to politi-cally determined objectives usually through transferring money from richer to poorer house-holds. We compare the distributional effects of CAP direct payments in EU Member States. In general, poorer households benefit more from social transfers than richer ones, whereas larger farms get more direct payments than smaller ones. Direct payments which are basically linked to the acreage of farms seem to be not an adequate tool to alleviate incomes of farm house-holds, a major objective of the CAP.

In 1992, the EU initiated the process of decoupling income transfers from agricultural production... more In 1992, the EU initiated the process of decoupling income transfers from agricultural production which has culminated in the 2003 reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). In this reform 'single farm payments' have been introduced which are based on direct payments during the reference period 2000-2002. We use statistics of such payments to explore the distribution patterns across farm holdings in EU member states. The results show, that direct payments are skewed towards a small number of very large holdings in a few member states. To show their distributional consequences on farm household incomes, we use data from the Farm Accountancy Data network in Austria. The analysis shows that direct payments do not contribute towards a more equal income distribution of farm households.

Consistent with proposals provided by the OECD, the practice of linking the Common Agricultural P... more Consistent with proposals provided by the OECD, the practice of linking the Common Agricultural Policy with agricultural production was abandoned after the 2003 reform. Another substantial change was expected from the 2013 reform. In line with the OECD principle, the provision of public goods should be demand-driven. In spite of favourable market conditions the final agreement fell short of meeting expectations, including those that it might strengthen rural development, ensure more equal direct payments and reduce administrative burdens. Causes for such an outcome are likely to be reform path dependencies and a tendency towards greater flexibilities motivated by national and regional interests. Among the expected outcomes are the continuation of fiscal discipline, more market-friendly regulations of the common market order and new risk management instruments.

Die Entwicklung der EU-Landwirtschaft nach 1945 wurde durch die Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik (GAP) sta... more Die Entwicklung der EU-Landwirtschaft nach 1945 wurde durch die Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik (GAP) stark beeinflusst. Die konkreten Masnahmen zur Erreichung der politisch definierten Ziele der GAP als auch fur die dafur eingesetzten Budgetmittel bedurfen der gesellschaftlichen Legitimation. Der auf einem Vortrag beruhende Beitrag behandelt kursorisch die Legitimierung der GAP aus rechlicher, okonomischer und politischer Sicht, wobei die historische Entwicklung dieses Politikbereichs als Ausgangspunkt dient. Nach einer ordnungspolitischen und rechtlichen Verortung der Legitimitat der GAP werden am Beispiel der politischen Begrundung des Direktzahlungssystems argumentative Schwachen in Form von logischen bzw. empirischen Unzulanglichkeiten dargestellt. Den Abschluss bilden politikwissenschaftliche Empfehlungen zur Uberwindung der ausgepragten Pfadabhangigkeit der GAP.

Journal of Agricultural Science and Applications, 2013

Considerations regarding the structure of the CAP after 2013 have been discussed for years. A key... more Considerations regarding the structure of the CAP after 2013 have been discussed for years. A key issue in this respect was decoupled direct payments (DDP), which represent the bulk of agricultural support in the European Union (EU). The relevant EU institutions decided in June 2013 to retain these payments with a minor modification: a split into a base payment and a greening component. So, despite broad criticism regarding the long-term feasibility of these payments they will be enshrined until 2020. However, as the nominal size of the future budget will basically remain unchanged, the real value of DDP will shrink. Consequently, member states (MS) may consider options to maintain farm support. In this case the “progressive” co-financing mechanism being presented in this paper may provide a politically feasible option: in accepting variable co-financing rates the MS are in a position to autonomously decide on pillar 1 payment levels. The proposed mechanism generates rising marginal cost for increasing payment levels and thus should mitigate the “common pool problem” related to pillar 1 funds.

Wifo Monatsberichte, 2010

The future GAP structures for 2014 and beyond are more difficult to forecast than was the case in... more The future GAP structures for 2014 and beyond are more difficult to forecast than was the case in earlier reforms of a comparable scale. The main obstacles are the worrying problems of EU countries at the macroeconomic level, together with the greater role that the European Parliament is now assigned within the decision-making process.

The Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference has taken place in Cancun, Mexico, from 10 to 14 September 2... more The Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference has taken place in Cancun, Mexico, from 10 to 14 September 2003.1 In WTO’s own wording the primary objective of this meeting was ‘to take stock of progress in negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda’. On Sunday, 14 September, the meeting ended without consensus on any of the items on the agenda.2 In agriculture, despite some progress made, WTO Members were unable to adopt an already downsized modalities ‘framework’.3 No doubt, this meeting was a clear failure with respect to the objective of pushing forward the current Doha Round of trade negotiations, and thus ‘the second black eye for the WTO in four years’.4

Monographien, Mar 1, 2014

Seit 2003 wurde die Koppelung von Forderungen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik an die Produktion ents... more Seit 2003 wurde die Koppelung von Forderungen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik an die Produktion entsprechend der Reformlogik der OECD schrittweise beseitigt. Fur das Jahr 2013 wurde ein weiterer Reformschritt erwartet, der sich am OECD-Prinzip der zielgerichteten Bereitstellung offentlicher Guter orientieren wurde. Trotz gunstiger Marktbedingungen fur Agrarprodukte blieben die aktuellen Reformvereinbarungen hinter den Erwartungen – Forcierung der landlichen Entwicklung, starke Angleichung der Stutzungsniveaus und administrative Vereinfachung – zuruck. Neben der Pfadabhangigkeit des GAP-Reformprozesses durfte dafur auch die Tendenz einer "Renationalisierung" der GAP bestimmend sein. Die Definition von fakultativen Bestimmungen wird zunehmend heterogene Regelungen in den Mitgliedslandern und Regionen zur Folge haben. Positiv zu beurteilen sind die Fortfuhrung der Budgetdisziplin sowie Anpassungen im Bereich der Marktordnungen und im Risikomanagement.

A proper analysis of the consequences of an Austrian participation in the European Common Market ... more A proper analysis of the consequences of an Austrian participation in the European Common Market for the domestic farming sector requires a simultaneous consideration of intra-and intersectoral effects. Simulation experiments with a model link between a macroeconometric model and an econometrically estimated agricultural sector model indicate that the migration process out of the agricultural sector will substantially increase. However, neglecting individual burdens from changing ones occupation, there seems to be no unemployment problems for leaving farmers in the long run as the absorption capacity of the non-agricultural sector is shown to be sufficient.

Berichte Uber Landwirtschaft, 1990

熊本学園大学文学・言語学論集, Dec 1, 1997

Journal of Agricultural Science and Applications, 2012

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive polic... more The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has evolved from an allocative towards a dis-tributive policy. Distributive policies aim at correcting market outcomes according to politi-cally determined objectives usually through transferring money from richer to poorer house-holds. We compare the distributional effects of CAP direct payments in EU Member States. In general, poorer households benefit more from social transfers than richer ones, whereas larger farms get more direct payments than smaller ones. Direct payments which are basically linked to the acreage of farms seem to be not an adequate tool to alleviate incomes of farm house-holds, a major objective of the CAP.

In 1992, the EU initiated the process of decoupling income transfers from agricultural production... more In 1992, the EU initiated the process of decoupling income transfers from agricultural production which has culminated in the 2003 reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP). In this reform 'single farm payments' have been introduced which are based on direct payments during the reference period 2000-2002. We use statistics of such payments to explore the distribution patterns across farm holdings in EU member states. The results show, that direct payments are skewed towards a small number of very large holdings in a few member states. To show their distributional consequences on farm household incomes, we use data from the Farm Accountancy Data network in Austria. The analysis shows that direct payments do not contribute towards a more equal income distribution of farm households.

Consistent with proposals provided by the OECD, the practice of linking the Common Agricultural P... more Consistent with proposals provided by the OECD, the practice of linking the Common Agricultural Policy with agricultural production was abandoned after the 2003 reform. Another substantial change was expected from the 2013 reform. In line with the OECD principle, the provision of public goods should be demand-driven. In spite of favourable market conditions the final agreement fell short of meeting expectations, including those that it might strengthen rural development, ensure more equal direct payments and reduce administrative burdens. Causes for such an outcome are likely to be reform path dependencies and a tendency towards greater flexibilities motivated by national and regional interests. Among the expected outcomes are the continuation of fiscal discipline, more market-friendly regulations of the common market order and new risk management instruments.

Die Entwicklung der EU-Landwirtschaft nach 1945 wurde durch die Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik (GAP) sta... more Die Entwicklung der EU-Landwirtschaft nach 1945 wurde durch die Gemeinsame Agrarpolitik (GAP) stark beeinflusst. Die konkreten Masnahmen zur Erreichung der politisch definierten Ziele der GAP als auch fur die dafur eingesetzten Budgetmittel bedurfen der gesellschaftlichen Legitimation. Der auf einem Vortrag beruhende Beitrag behandelt kursorisch die Legitimierung der GAP aus rechlicher, okonomischer und politischer Sicht, wobei die historische Entwicklung dieses Politikbereichs als Ausgangspunkt dient. Nach einer ordnungspolitischen und rechtlichen Verortung der Legitimitat der GAP werden am Beispiel der politischen Begrundung des Direktzahlungssystems argumentative Schwachen in Form von logischen bzw. empirischen Unzulanglichkeiten dargestellt. Den Abschluss bilden politikwissenschaftliche Empfehlungen zur Uberwindung der ausgepragten Pfadabhangigkeit der GAP.

Journal of Agricultural Science and Applications, 2013

Considerations regarding the structure of the CAP after 2013 have been discussed for years. A key... more Considerations regarding the structure of the CAP after 2013 have been discussed for years. A key issue in this respect was decoupled direct payments (DDP), which represent the bulk of agricultural support in the European Union (EU). The relevant EU institutions decided in June 2013 to retain these payments with a minor modification: a split into a base payment and a greening component. So, despite broad criticism regarding the long-term feasibility of these payments they will be enshrined until 2020. However, as the nominal size of the future budget will basically remain unchanged, the real value of DDP will shrink. Consequently, member states (MS) may consider options to maintain farm support. In this case the “progressive” co-financing mechanism being presented in this paper may provide a politically feasible option: in accepting variable co-financing rates the MS are in a position to autonomously decide on pillar 1 payment levels. The proposed mechanism generates rising marginal cost for increasing payment levels and thus should mitigate the “common pool problem” related to pillar 1 funds.

Wifo Monatsberichte, 2010

The future GAP structures for 2014 and beyond are more difficult to forecast than was the case in... more The future GAP structures for 2014 and beyond are more difficult to forecast than was the case in earlier reforms of a comparable scale. The main obstacles are the worrying problems of EU countries at the macroeconomic level, together with the greater role that the European Parliament is now assigned within the decision-making process.

The Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference has taken place in Cancun, Mexico, from 10 to 14 September 2... more The Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference has taken place in Cancun, Mexico, from 10 to 14 September 2003.1 In WTO’s own wording the primary objective of this meeting was ‘to take stock of progress in negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda’. On Sunday, 14 September, the meeting ended without consensus on any of the items on the agenda.2 In agriculture, despite some progress made, WTO Members were unable to adopt an already downsized modalities ‘framework’.3 No doubt, this meeting was a clear failure with respect to the objective of pushing forward the current Doha Round of trade negotiations, and thus ‘the second black eye for the WTO in four years’.4

Monographien, Mar 1, 2014

Seit 2003 wurde die Koppelung von Forderungen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik an die Produktion ents... more Seit 2003 wurde die Koppelung von Forderungen der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik an die Produktion entsprechend der Reformlogik der OECD schrittweise beseitigt. Fur das Jahr 2013 wurde ein weiterer Reformschritt erwartet, der sich am OECD-Prinzip der zielgerichteten Bereitstellung offentlicher Guter orientieren wurde. Trotz gunstiger Marktbedingungen fur Agrarprodukte blieben die aktuellen Reformvereinbarungen hinter den Erwartungen – Forcierung der landlichen Entwicklung, starke Angleichung der Stutzungsniveaus und administrative Vereinfachung – zuruck. Neben der Pfadabhangigkeit des GAP-Reformprozesses durfte dafur auch die Tendenz einer "Renationalisierung" der GAP bestimmend sein. Die Definition von fakultativen Bestimmungen wird zunehmend heterogene Regelungen in den Mitgliedslandern und Regionen zur Folge haben. Positiv zu beurteilen sind die Fortfuhrung der Budgetdisziplin sowie Anpassungen im Bereich der Marktordnungen und im Risikomanagement.

A proper analysis of the consequences of an Austrian participation in the European Common Market ... more A proper analysis of the consequences of an Austrian participation in the European Common Market for the domestic farming sector requires a simultaneous consideration of intra-and intersectoral effects. Simulation experiments with a model link between a macroeconometric model and an econometrically estimated agricultural sector model indicate that the migration process out of the agricultural sector will substantially increase. However, neglecting individual burdens from changing ones occupation, there seems to be no unemployment problems for leaving farmers in the long run as the absorption capacity of the non-agricultural sector is shown to be sufficient.