Political economy of public policies: Insights from distortions to agricultural and food markets

Kym Anderson, Gordon Rausser, Johan Swinnen

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

211 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The agricultural and food sector is an ideal case for investigating the political economy of public policies. Many of the policy developments in this sector since the 1950s have been sudden and transformational, while others have been gradual but persistent. This article reviews and synthesizes the literature on trends and fuctuations in market distortions and the political-economy explanations that have been advanced. Based on a rich global data set covering a half-century of evidence on commodities, countries, and policy instruments, we identify hypotheses that have been explored in the literature on the extent of market distortions and the conditions under which reform may be feasible.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)423-477
Number of pages55
JournalJournal of Economic Literature
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2013
Externally publishedYes

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