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Taxing agriculture to mobilize resources for industrialization has been a widely used development strategy. Using novel cross-country time-series data sets with direct measures of agricultural taxation, we examine how a policy bias against agriculture affects the speed of convergence in income per capita, structural change, and economic growth. We find that distortionary agricultural policies in poor economies can account for the emergence of convergence clubs in our sample by significantly retarding their structural transformation and economic growth. Overall, we find no evidence suggesting that policies that discriminate against agriculture have been beneficial for long-term economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which questions whether economic, farm or biofuel policy has more stake in leading economic recovery. It develops an income capitalization model to formally gauge the regional level impacts that prominent rural and urban fiscal, monetary, energy, and agricultural policies have on rural asset valuations. It delves into theoretical associations among capital and real economic sectors of regional economies.

The article focuses on the economic analysis of the regulation of agriculture in the U.S. It is stated that regulation for agriculture can help foster competition by intervening to increase the number of firms or to dictate certain courses of action. It implies that promoting competitive market pricing and dealing with externalities such as fertilizer run-off and by-products of feedlots are the most prominent general regulatory fields of actions for agricultural development. It suggests the need for understanding the supply function to analyze the producer benefits or cost from regulatory measures.

The classical economic development literature argues that growth is accompanied by a reduction in agriculture's share and an increase in nonagriculture's share of employment. Yet growth of the nonfarm sector does not necessarily signal increasing levels of development, as the sector may serve as subsistence employment for many individuals. This ambiguity is heightened by a surprising lack of microevidence regarding sectoral and occupational choice and, especially, how government policies impact these decisions. In this article, I make a simple observation regarding how nonfarm self‐employment reacts to market conditions: households and individuals that enter into nonfarm self‐employment for subsistence reasons are more likely to exit the sector when wages increase or when more stable employment becomes available. With this assumption as a starting point, I examine the effects of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which increased prevailing wages in rural India. The program significantly decreases days spent in nonfarm self‐employment. In addition, the implied labor elasticity is three times higher than economy‐wide estimates, suggesting rural nonfarm self‐employment is a sector of last resort for many individuals. Additional analyses suggest this impact is driven primarily by two mechanisms: higher wages and alternative options for risk‐management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on two technical assistance projects using aggregate index-based risk transfer products (IBRTPs) to transfer natural disaster risks affecting agricultural production over broad regions, Peru and Vietnam. Study shows that access to advanced financial services by rural people is associated to the accelerated economic development. IBTRPs' development may remove a portion of correlated risk impeding the development of financial services through the provision of the means of transferring catastrophic weather shock cost. However, the risk transfer is only the beginning step in developing efficient credit markets in developing countries. It was found out that the natural disasters in both countries have similar characteristics and impacts, though the source of risk differs.

The article aims to present a conceptual framework for the analysis of ecosystem services (ES) supply in the U.S. It will also discuss some of the data and modeling issues that arise in predicting farmers' participation in ES contracts and the supply of ES resulting from them. To frame the discussion, the researchers outline a model of the supply of ES that illustrates the ways that spatial and system complexity can affect it. This model is used to discuss the data and modeling issues that arise in empirical implementation.

The article focuses on the development of the policy analysis related to food and agricultural industry in the U.S. It is stated that policy analysis and science are in a symbiotic relationship as economics and politics attempt to define questions for study and for alternative solutions. It implies the relevance of educational institutions in producing the analysts of tomorrow and officials who attempt to demonstrate to their fellow citizens that government can be a competent, creative and even exciting place to work.

The article explores the role of the economist in the process of establishing public policy that regulates the food and agricultural industry in the U.S. According to Jim Shaffer, the economic regulation results from the attempt of citizens to articulate preferences about the physical and social environment they share. It is stated that economists must look for specific issues that will lead to useful and effective regulation policy research and education through identifying the production and marketing processes. The economists are advised to be active in developing and refining the public policy of regulation that needs careful empirical analysis of defined issues.

The article reflects on the timeliness of the topic of ecosystem services (ES) in the arena of agricultural policy in the U.S. According to the author, policies and programs founded in ES science and economics can provide genuine alternatives to decades of commodity-based federal farm policy. The evolution of agricultural policy as it transforms to incorporate ES measures and transactions is uncertain. It will be marked by analytic challenges and policy retreats to old ways. ES assessments will enable budget allocation, planning and priority setting on the part of public agencies.