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Agricultural markets in OECD countries have long been highly distorted by government policies. Traditional weighted average aggregates of the price distortions involved, such as producer and consumer support estimates can be poor indicators of the trade restrictiveness and economic welfare losses associated with them, especially if a country's support estimates vary a lot across the product range. Certainly estimates of trade and welfare effects of price supports can be obtained from sector or economy-wide models using price elasticity estimates, but the results can be contentious if there is no consensus on what model specification and elasticity parameters to use. This paper shows that, if there is a willingness to accept simple assumptions about elasticities, it is possible to generate indicators of the welfare and trade restrictiveness of agricultural policies using no more than the price and quantity data needed to generate producer and consumer support estimates. These new indexes thus provide an attractive supplement to the current policy monitoring regime developed by the OECD Secretariat.

Agricultural Price --- Agriculture --- Consumers --- Crops & Crop Management Systems --- Development Economics --- Economic Models --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Equilibrium --- Exchange Rates --- Free Trade --- Import barriers --- Index numbers --- International Economics and Trade --- International trade --- Less developed countries --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Open economy --- Price elasticity --- Price elasticity of supply --- Private Sector Development --- Taxation --- Trade policies --- Trade policy --- Transition economies --- WTO