TY - GEN digital ID - 131680600 TI - The political economy of agricultural and food policies PY - 2018 SN - 9781137501028 PB - New York, N.Y. Palgrave Macmillan DB - UniCat KW - Political systems KW - International relations. Foreign policy KW - Politics KW - Economic policy and planning (general) KW - Industrial economics KW - Foreign trade. International trade KW - International economic relations KW - Economics KW - Business policy KW - Civil engineering. Building industry KW - internationale economische politiek KW - economie KW - economische politiek KW - industrie KW - politiek KW - armoede KW - wereldeconomie KW - internationale economie UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:131680600 AB - Food and agriculture have been subject to heavy-handed government interventions throughout much of history and across the globe, both in developing and in developed countries. Today, more than half a trillion US dollars are spent by some governments to support farmers, while other governments impose regulations and taxes that hurt farmers. Some policies, such as price regulations and tariffs, distribute income but reduce total welfare by introducing economic distortions. Other policies, such as public investments in research, food standards, or land reforms, may increase total welfare, but these policies come also with distributional effects. These distributional effects influence the preferences of interest groups and in turn influence policy decisions. Political considerations are therefore crucial to understand how agricultural and food policies are determined, to identify the constraints within which welfare-enhancing reforms are possible (or not), and finally to understand how coalitions can be created to stimulate growth and reduce poverty. . ER -