Antipodean agricultural and resource economics at 60: national and global price- and trade-distorting policies

Abstract

This paper surveys significant contributions made by Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) agricultural and trade economists to our understanding of the extent to which price- and trade-distorting policies affect domestic and international prices and markets for agricultural products and economic welfare. It begins with the theory of policy impacts on producer and consumer prices and value added by farmers. It then surveys efforts to measure the extent of distortions due to such policies, first in Australia and New Zealand and then in other regions of the world. ANZ economists’ efforts to use models to estimate the market and welfare effects of policies nationally and globally are then assessed, before attention turns to their ex ante estimates of the effects of trade agreements. The paper's Supporting Information includes a brief survey of attempts to understand the political economy forces behind those various policies and their recent reforms.