Premium
Replacement of Agricultural Price Supports by Area Payments in the European Union and the Effects on Pesticide Use
Author(s) -
Serra Teresa,
Zilberman David,
Goodwin Barry K.,
Hyvonen Keijo
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.949
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1467-8276
pISSN - 0002-9092
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8276.2005.00775.x
Subject(s) - common agricultural policy , european union , payment , economics , agriculture , agricultural policy , agricultural economics , decoupling (probability) , economic policy , geography , finance , archaeology , control engineering , engineering
This article determines the contribution of recent European Union agricultural policy reforms on the use of pesticides. Our theoretical model extends the multioutput generalization of the Lichtenberg—Zilberman damage control technology model developed by Chambers and Lichtenberg. Our empirical analysis uses farm‐level data for a sample of French farms. Results suggest that price effects on the use of pesticides are always more elastic than area payment effects. This indicates that policy reforms consisting of a reduction in price supports in favor of area payments, may reduce application of crop protection inputs. Such policy changes, which represent a certain degree of decoupling, took place under the 1992 Common Agricultural Policy reforms.