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A FRENCH PERSPECTIVE ON SUPPLY CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT
Author(s) -
Boussard J. M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1988.tb00592.x
Subject(s) - economics , production (economics) , market failure , economic shortage , order (exchange) , government (linguistics) , value (mathematics) , control (management) , public economics , economies of scale , agriculture , scale (ratio) , microeconomics , finance , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , management , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , biology
The special nature of agricultural production implies many possibilities of market failure in equating supply and demand. Government interventions have aimed at correcting their most obvious effects, but do not take into account the absence of economies of scale, nor the major role of uncertainty in driving producer decisions in this sector. Over‐production, as well as shortages (of staple foods in many developing countries), have followed. So‐called ‘structural’ policies are not much help, because their cost is too high, being of the same order of magnitude as the value of the commodities they are supposed to regulate. A generalized system of quotas could possibly be considered, although there exist few grounds to fix the target quantity at national level.