Database of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007
Kym Anderson and Ernesto Valenzuela
with the assistance of Johanna Croser, Esteban Jara, Marianne
Kurzweil, Signe Nelgen, Francesca de Nicola, and Damiano Sandri
October 2008 (Revised April 2009)
The World Bank’s research project on “Distortions to Agricultural Incentives” www.worldbank.org/agdistortions has produced a core database of Nominal Rates of Assistance to producers, or NRAs, together with a set of Consumer Tax Equivalents, or CTEs, for farm products and a set of Relative Rates of Assistance to farmers in75 focus countries. Financial assistance from World Bank Trust Funds, particularly from DfID and BNPP, is gratefully acknowledged, as are the contributions of each of authors of spreadsheets for the 75 country case studies.
Citation: Kym Anderson and Ernesto Valenzuela, "Estimates of Global Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007", World Bank, Washington DC, October 2008.
Methodology details are available in the World Bank Policy Research Paper No.4612, April 2008. wps4612
This data report builder also provides partial equilibrium indicators of trade (Trade Reduction Index) and welfare reductions (Welfare Reduction Index) to government interventions in agricultural markets. These indicators recently developed by Anderson, Crosser and Lloyd (2009) from the trade restrictiveness index literature that Anderson and Neary pioneered during the 1990s, use the NRA and CTE estimates for each focus country in the core database, along with value of production and consumption at undistorted prices for each product. The World Bank Policy Research Paper No.4864 and 4865 serve as the methodology papers for this extra database.
A supplementary database of trade and welfare reduction indexes
Kym Anderson and Johanna Croser
Citation: Kym Anderson and Johanna Croser, “National and Global Agricultural Trade and Welfare Reduction Indexes, 1955 to 2007”, World Bank, Washington DC, April 2009.
Background of the World Bank project on Agricultural Distortions,
The vast majority of the world’s poorest households depend on farming for their livelihood. In the past their earnings were often depressed by pro-urban and anti-agricultural biases of their own country’s policies. While progress has been made over the past two decades by numerous developing countries in reducing those policy biases, many trade-reducing price distortions remain intersectorally as well as within the agricultural sector of low-, middle- and high-income countries.
This project, in seeking to understand the extent, effects of and reasons behind that transformation, began by compiling new estimates of price distortions over the past half century. National country studies were undertaken in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe’s transition economies. They were supplemented with similar estimates and analytical narratives of policy trends in 20 high-income countries. Together those countries account for more than 90 percent of the value of global agricultural output. Working Paper versions of the national studies, and the associated national spreadsheets that were drawn on to generate the core global dataset, can be accessed from www.worldbank.org/agdistortions
References
Anderson, K. and Associates (2009), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955 to 2007, London: Palgrave Macmillan and Washington DC: World Bank (forthcoming).
Anderson, K. and J. Croser (2009), “National and Global Agricultural Trade and Welfare Reduction Indexes, 1955 to 2007”, World Bank, Washington DC, April.
Anderson, K. and W. Martin (eds.) (2009), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington DC: World Bank.
Anderson, K. and W. Masters (eds.) (2009), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Africa, Washington DC: World Bank.
Anderson, K. and J. Swinnen (eds.) (2008), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Europe’s Transition Economies, Washington DC: World Bank.
Anderson, K. and A. Valdés (eds.) (2008), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America, Washington DC: World Bank.
Anderson, K. and E. Valenzuela (2008), “Estimates of Global Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007”, World Bank, Washington DC, October, available on the Database page at www.worldbank.org/agdistortions.
Krueger, A.O., M. Schiff and A. Valdés (1991), The Political Economy of Agricultural Pricing Policy, Volume 1: Latin America, Volume 2: Asia, and Volume 3: Africa and the Mediterranean, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press for the World Bank.
Lloyd, P.J., J.L. Croser and K. Anderson (2009a), "Global Distortions to Agricultural Markets: New Indicators of Trade and Welfare Impacts, 1960 to 2007", Policy Research Working Paper 4865, Washington DC, March.
Lloyd, P.J., J.L. Croser and K. Anderson (2009b), “How Do Agricultural Policy Restrictions to Global Trade and Welfare Differ Across Commodities?” Policy Research Working Paper 4864, World Bank, Washington DC, March.
OECD (2008 and earlier years), Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries: Monitoring and Evaluation, Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Valenzuela, E. and K. Anderson (2008),“ Alternative Agricultural Price Distortions for CGE Analysis of Developing Countries, 2004 and 1980-84”, Research Memorandum No. 13, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University, West Lafayette IN, December. Freely downloadable at https://www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu/resources/res_display.asp?RecordID=2925
Valenzuela, E., D. van der Mensbrugghe and K. Anderson (2009),“ General Equilibrium Effects of Price Distortions on Global Markets, Farm Incomes and Welfare”, Ch. 13 in Anderson and Associates (2009).
World Bank (2008), International Comparisons Project PPP Tables for 2005, Washington DC: World Bank.