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Database of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007

Country

Country Elements

Nominal Rate of Assistance Total agriculture The nominal rate of assistance to total agriculture is the production weighted average of NRAs for covered products, and it makes use as well of informed guesses on the rates of protection to non-covered farm products. It includes product-specific input subsidies and non-product-specific assistance.
The NRA is the percentage by which domestic producer prices are above (or below if negative) the border prices of a like products. due, e.g., to trade taxes, taxes or subsidies to domestic production, or government intervention in the domestic market for foreign exchange), and it is net of transportation and trade margins.
Gross Subsidy Equivalent to Total Ag, (in 2000 US$) The real gross subsidy equivalent for total agriculture is the resulting monetary value (using a 2000 base year) of the rates of assistance to total agriculture times the undistorted value of agricultural production.
Decoupled payments, as % of total value of production For High-income countries, where available, payments decoupled from production are expressed as % of the total value of production (valued at the border price, hence undistorted by domestic policies)
Nominal Rate of Assistance Ag Exportables The nominal rate of assistance to agricultural exportables is the production weighted average of the rates of assistance to exportable covered farm products, and it makes use as well of informed guesses on the rate of assistance to non-covered exportable farm products.
Nominal Rate of Assistance Ag Importables The nominal rate of assistance to agricultural importables is the production weighted average of the rates of assistance to importable covered farm products, and it makes use as well of informed guesses on the structure of protection to non-covered importable farm products.
Nominal Rate of Assistance non-agriculture tradables The nominal rate of assistance to non-agriculture tradables is a GDP weighted average of the structure of protection in non-agriculture importables and taxation in non-agriculture exportables.
Exchange Rate (LC/US$), equilibrium The equilibrium exchange rate allows accounting for a trade tax equivalent of government imposed policies which create a gap between the price received by exporters and the price paid by importers for foreign currency. It is an estimate of the equilibrium exchange rate that would prevail without distortions in the domestic market for foreign currency.
Relative Rate of Assistance The relative rate of assistance indicates the distortion to the price of agricultural tradables relative to those of non-agricultural tradables. It is calculated as,

Consumer Tax Equivalent, TOTAL for all covered products Consumer Tax Equivalent is the percentage by which domestic consumer prices are above (or below if negative) international prices. This measure is an estimate of direct government policy intervention affecting consumers of covered farm products and it is calculated at the primary product equivalent level.
Value (undistorted) of Production Total Agriculture Production valued at the border price, hence undistorted by domestic policies and expressed in US$.
Value of consumption total COVERED products Consumption valued at the border price, hence undistorted by domestic policies and expressed in US$.
Agricultural workforce (FAOSTAT)
GDP per capita (constant 2000 US$) WDI
Welfare Restrictiveness Index (WRI) The Welfare Reduction Index (WRI) is defined as the ad valorem trade tax rate which, if applied uniformly across all tradable agricultural commodities in a country would generate the same reduction in economic welfare as the actual cross-product structure of NRAs and CTEs for that country.
Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI) The Trade Reduction Index (TRI) is defined as the ad valorem trade tax rate which, if applied uniformly across all tradable agricultural commodities in a country would generate the same reduction in trade as the actual cross-product structure of NRAs and CTEs for that country.

Year

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This report-builder interface is a product of the Centre for International Economic Studies (CIES) at The University of Adelaide.
The Database of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives is a product of The World Bank.

That project 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 accounting for 95% of global GDP and agricultural production in75 focus countries.

Citation:
Kym Anderson and Ernesto Valenzuela, "Estimates of Global Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007", World Bank, Washington DC, October 2008, at http://www.worldbank.org/agdistortions.

This page also provides estimates of partial equilibrium indicators of trade and welfare reductions, TRIs and WRIs due to government interventions in agricultural markets,

Citation:
Kym Anderson and Johanna Croser, “National and Global Agricultural Trade and Welfare Reduction Indexes, 1955 to 2007”, World Bank, Washington DC, April 2009.

Country

Product

Product Elements

Nominal Rate of Assistance The Nominal Rate of Assistance to producers is the percentage by which the domestic producer price is above (or below if negative) the border price of a like product. This measure is an estimate of direct government policy intervention (due, e.g., to trade taxes, taxes or subsidies to domestic production, or government intervention in the domestic market for foreign exchange), and it is net of transportation and trade margins.
Consumer Tax Equivalent The Consumer Tax Equivalent is the percentage by which the domestic consumer price is above (or below if negative) the border price of a like product. This measure is an estimate of direct government policy intervention affecting consumers and it is calculated at the primary product equivalent level.
Value of Production undistorted Production valued at the border price, hence undistorted by domestic policies and expressed in US$.
Value of Consumption Consumption valued at the border price, hence undistorted by domestic policies and expressed in US$.
Exchange Rate (LC/US$), equilibrium The equilibrium exchange rate allows accounting for a trade tax equivalent of government imposed policies which create a gap between the price received by exporters and the price paid by importers for foreign currency. It is an estimate of the equilibrium exchange rate that would prevail without distortions in the domestic market for foreign currency.
Official Exchange Rate (LC/US$) Official exchange rate, product-specific where appropriate
Volume of Production
Volume of Consumption
Price producer farm-gate (LC/MT)
Price producer farm-gate (US$/MT)
Price UNDISTORTED producer farm-gate Price net of distortions, equal to price producer farm gate divided by (1+NRA), hence undistorted by domestic policies and expressed in US$.
Export, share of production exported
Import, share of consumption imported
Self-sufficiency ratio

Year

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This report-builder interface is a product of the Centre for International Economic Studies (CIES) at The University of Adelaide.
The Database of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives is a product of the World Bank’s project “Distortions to Agricultural Incentives”.

That project 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 accounting for 95% of global GDP and agricultural production in75 focus countries.

Citation:

Kym Anderson and Ernesto Valenzuela, "Estimates of Global Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2007", World Bank, Washington DC, October 2008, at http://www.worldbank.org/agdistortions.

Comments about this report-builder are welcome.



Please contact

Dr. Ernesto Valenzuela
Lecturer and Research Fellow
School of Economics
University of Adelaide
Adelaide SA 5005 Australia

e-Mail: ernesto.valenzuela@adelaide.edu.au

Home-Page: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/ernesto.valenzuela

Research community’s perception of this database:

“ The World Bank database that is presented in Anderson and Valenzuela 2008 is one of the major accomplishments on agricultural distortions throughout the world. This database will provide fertile ground for future research work that will help promote economic growth. The factual foundation for agricultural support and protection will now be understood by both academic researchers and policymakers as a result of this publication. Congratulations on a job well done.”

Prof. Gordon Rausser,
Distinguished Professor
University of California, Berkeley

“I should say that your data effort is enormous”

Prof. K. Gawande
Bush School of Government
Texas A&M University.

“This database should make it much easier for policy makers and analysts to understand the impacts of agricultural support and protection and (who knows?) to identify mistakes and to do things better in the future. A Terrific project”

P. Gallagher
Australian consultant on trade and public policy

“I have great respect for Kym Anderson and Ernesto Valenzuela’s accomplishments in compiling this data set”

Prof. S. Block
International Economics Fletcher School
Tufs University

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.