The Economic Welfare and Trade Relations Implications of the 2014 Farm Bill
Published By: Emerald Publishing
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Before now, there was no comprehensive, accessible account of the economic welfare effects of the 2014 Farm Bill, passed by the US Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 7, 2014. This edited collection consists of 10 essays by distinguished scholars, each focused on a particular area of the US farm programs. The authors describe and assess the economic welfare impact of the programs in those areas, combining illuminating new research with assessments based on state-of-the-art research. As the first comprehensive account to address contemporary US agricultural policy as defined by the 2014 Farm Bill, this book provides a careful analysis of US agricultural policy, made accessible to students, graduates, interest groups, and policymakers. Essential reading for anyone interested in the international trade and trade relations implications of US agricultural policy and the 2014 farm bill.
In summary, the authors find that while some subsidized programs are beneficial for US citizens and enhance economic efficiency and productivity (for example, publicly funded agricultural research programs), most are intended to transfer income and wealth to farmers and related agricultural business. They do so at a substantial cost to most US citizens by distorting resource uses, artificially increasing prices (for example, through sugar import quotas and domestic sugar supply controls), and encouraging socially sub-optimal risk taking. Many farm subsidy programs also create the potential for adverse impacts on international trade and trade relations.
More: The Farm Bill mainly helps wealthy farmers
Contents
Chapter 1: The 2014 Farm Bill—An Economic Welfare Disaster or Triumph?
Barry K. Goodwin and Vincent H. Smith
Chapter 2: The 2014 Farm Bill in Historical Perspective
David Orden and Carl Zulauf
Chapter 3: Welfare Effects of Title One Programs
Bruce Babcock
Chapter 4: Conservation, the Farm Bill, and US Agri-Environmental Policy
Erik Lichtenberg
Chapter 5: The Negligible Welfare Effects of the International Food Aid Provisions in the 2014 Farm Bill
Erin C. Lentz and Christopher B. Barrett
Chapter 6: Some Trade Implications of the 2014 Agricultural Act
Colin A. Carter
Chapter 7: WTO Compliance under the 2014 Farm Bill
Joseph W. Glauber and Patrick Westhoff
Chapter 8: Multiple Peril Crop Insurance
Brian Davern Wright
Chapter 9: US Dairy Subsidies Remain Convoluted and Costly
Daniel A. Sumner, Joseph V. Balagtas, and Jisang Yu
Chapter 10: The 2014 Farm Bill and the US Sugar Program
Gary W. Brester
Chapter 11: Losing the Plot? Agricultural Research Policy and the 2014 Farm Bill
Philip G. Pardey, Jason M. Beddow, and Steven T. Buccola
Chapter 12: Rural Development Policy in the Farm Bill
Mary Clare Ahearn
About the Editor
Vincent H. Smith is a visiting scholar at AEI and codirector of AEI’s agricultural policy initiative. He is also a professor of economics in the department of agricultural economics and director of the Agricultural Marketing Policy Center at Montana State University.
About the Authors
Mary Clare Ahearn is a retired agricultural economist at the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
Bruce Babcock is a professor and the Cargill Chair of Energy Economics at Iowa State University. He is also the director of the Biobased Industry Center.
Joseph V. Balagtas is an associate professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.
Christopher B. Barrett is the David J. Nolan Director and Stephen B. and Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and the International Professor in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.
Jason M. Beddow is an assistant professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota.
Gary W. Brester is a professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Montana State University.
Steven T. Buccola is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University.
Colin A. Carter is a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis.
Joseph Glauber is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Barry K. Goodwin is the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Economics Department and the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department at North Carolina State University.
Erin C. Lentz is an assistant professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Eric Lichtenberg is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of Maryland.
David Orden is a senior research fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Philip G. Pardey is a professor of science and technology policy in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. He is also the director of global research strategy for the College of Food Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station.
Daniel A. Sumner is the Frank H. Buck Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of California, Davis and the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center.
Patrick Westhoff is the director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri and professor in the University of Missouri Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics.
Brian Davern Wright is a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at University of California, Berkeley.
Jisang Yu is a Ph.D. candidate in agricultural and resource economics at the University of California, Davis.
Carl Zulauf is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State University.
