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Impact of the WTO on Agricultural and Food Policies
Author(s) -
Swinnen Johan,
Olper Alessandro,
Vandemoortele Thijs
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2012.01472.x
Subject(s) - agriculture , economics , ex ante , international economics , agricultural policy , food policy , agreement on agriculture , international trade , agricultural economics , macroeconomics , food security , free trade , ecology , biology
Most studies on the impact of WTO agreements on policies are ex ante simulations or focus on trade effects. We estimate ex post the impact of the WTO on agricultural policies, including both the total transfers by the policies and the policy instruments used, in particular their market distortions. We use OECD data on total support and instrument choice in agricultural policy. Our empirical analysis provides evidence that the WTO did not cause a significant reduction in the total amount of support to agriculture but that it caused a significant shift from distortionary to less distortionary instruments.