Efficiency of Income Redistribution through Agricultural Policy: A Welfare Economic Analysis (European University Studies)

Klaus Salhofer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3631317697 ISBN 13: 9783631317693

Verlag: Lang, Peter GmbH, 1997

Since government can use manifold policy instruments at various levels, which influence various social groups, the evaluation of the efficiency of income redistribution is not straight forward. The study in hand contributes to the literature by first applying a multimarket framework to recent theoretical developments in transfer efficiency analysis. A three-stage vertically-structured model including the bread grains market as well as agricultural input industries and the food processing industry is developed and econometrically estimated. This model and standard welfare measures are used to judge the Austrian agricultural policy. It is revealed that in addition to farmers, downstream and upstream industries benefit considerably from agricultural policy. Using nonlinear optimization procedures, it is shown that the applied policy is not Pareto efficient. Applying an optimal policy instead of the current one could Pareto improve the social state by 1.7 billion Austrian Shilling.

Biografía del autor:

The Author: Klaus Salhofer is a research associate and lecturer at the Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien (University of Agricultural Sciences Vienna). He was born in Ried i.I., Upper Austria, in 1966. He received his first degree in economics at the University of Linz in 1992, and his doctoral degree in agricultural economics at the Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien in 1996. He was a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Linz, and a visiting scholar and research associate at the University of Illinois. His primary research interests are in agricultural policy analysis, applied welfare economics, and political economy.