SummaryA structural gravity model is used to quantify the effect of harmonisation of EU food regulations on intra-EU trade during 1990 -2001. We construct a database that identifies food products covered by harmonised regulations at a very detailed level. We find, at different levels of aggregation, that harmonisation of food regulations has led to more intra-EU trade, and that the tariff equivalents of the cost of not harmonising food regulations, subject to the sub-sector elasticity of substitution, vary significantly across some food sub-sectors.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

At a time when policy-makers in many developed countries continue to justify farm support on the basis of relatively low and unstable incomes, this chapter shows that incomes of farm households are not particularly lower on average compared to those of non-farm households in most of the ten selected OECD member countries. What is however striking is that income disparity and poverty are greater in the farm community compared to the non-farm community in most of the selected countries. This analysis questions therefore the continuation of indiscriminate farm income support. It also calls for the need of collecting farm household data that would allow a more effective targeting of farm support and for revising fundamentally public interventions towards the agricultural sector.

The European Commission has introduced new risk management tools in the rural development pillar 2 of the Common Agricultural Policy. One of them consists in providing co-financing support to mutual funds compensating farmers who experience a severe drop in their income. This paper analyses this income stabilisation tool for a region in Belgium by means of a skew normal linear mixed model. Relying on the farm accountancy data network, this analysis focuses on estimating the probability that such a fund would need to intervene and, in that case, the expected amount of each farm income compensation. The predictive distribution of future incomes given past revenues trajectory is derived and used for evaluation purposes. Particular attention is paid to additional requirements that could be imposed to the income stabilisation tool.

No abstract

[eng] Adoption of MAE and farmers' accept in the region of Wallonia . To explain the low adoption rate of the agri-environment measures in place since 1994 in the Region of Wallonia, Belgium, this study identifies and analyses the adoption determinants of the two most popular measures: late mowing and the maintenance of quickset hedges. Under agri-environment measures, the farmer may simultaneously receive a payment for supplying environmental goods and derive utility from their presence on his farm. Based on the theory of farm household, the model used for this analysis takes into account this absence of rivalry characterising the environmental goods. Using this model with data from a survey of 245 farmers, the econometric analysis confirms the validity of this type of behaviour and shows in particular to what extent the household's environmental sensitivity influences the probability of adopting these two agri-environment measures. The econometric results for the adoption of the late mowing measure compared to those for the willingness to accept a payment to adopt this measure are coherent with each other and confirm the validity of using contingent evaluation to estimate the costs of providing a public good by private agents. Specific recommendations for broadening the adoption of these two measures are also proposed. [fre] En vue d'expliquer le faible niveau d'adoption des mesures agri-environnementales proposées depuis 1994 aux agriculteurs de la Région wallonne, cette étude identifie et analyse les facteurs d'adoption des deux mesures les plus populaires, c'est-à-dire la fauche tardive et le maintien de haies. Pour cette analyse, un modèle tiré de la théorie du ménage agricole est proposé pour intégrer dans celui-ci l'absence de rivalité entre l'utilité de la prime perçue pour la production du bien environnemental et l'utilité de ce bien sur son exploitation. À partir des données d'une enquête auprès de 245 agriculteurs, l'analyse économétrique confirme la pertinence de cette formalisation et montre notamment dans quelle mesure la perception environnementale du ménage affecte la probabilité d'adopter ces deux mesures agri-environnementales. Les résultats économétriques de l'adoption de la fauche tardive comparés à ceux du consentement à recevoir un paiement pour adopter cette mesure sont cohérents les uns vis-à-vis des autres et montrent l'utilité de l'évaluation contingente pour estimer les coûts de production d'un bien public par des agents privés. Des recommandations spécifiques sont également proposées pour élargir l'adoption des ces deux mesures.