Subsidy WatchIssue 8, January 2007

  • An Introduction to Investment Incentives

    By Kenneth P. Thomas, Associate Professor, Political Science and Fellow, Center for International Studies, University of Missouri - St. Louis

    With the progressive dismantling of formal trade barriers as a result of many rounds of global trade negotiations, subsidies have become increasingly important as a way for governments to regulate economic activity within their territories. While subsidies are not necessarily bad policy, it is important to weigh their expected benefits against the possibility of efficiency, equity, or even environmental problems that may result.

    Investment incentives are those subsidies designed to affect the location of investments.

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Also in this issue:

Analysis

  • Factoid

    The United States Congressional Research Service estimates the number of earmarks - specific spending measures that often are used to fund roads, bridges and other projects in a lawmaker's district - contained in legislation passed by the U.S. Congress has grown from about 3,000 (costing $20.2 billion in fiscal 1996) to 13,000 (costing $67 billion in 2006).

    Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0zt0.c7nq78&refer=home

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Commentary

  • Supply Management in Canada: Lessons for the South

    By Richard Reesor*

    Raised on an egg producing farm during the 1960s and ‘70s, I witnessed the transition from free-run to caged-layer technology, a move that allowed producers to expand their operations rapidly from farms of a few thousand layers to tens of thousands of layers. That, in turn, sparked a shift in Canada's agricultural policy. As supplies of poultry and eggs surged, and prices for these products fell, the government passed legislation creating farmer-controlled marketing boards with the power to set production levels and prices.

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News

  • USDA releases information on farm subsidy recipients

    The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released new data on the recipients of U.S. farm subsidies to the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and a number of news organizations in response to freedom of information (FOI) requests.

    Congress had mandated a tracking system for farm subsidies in the 2002 Farm Bill, explains the EWG. That information, which should shed new light on the recipients of farm subsidies, was released in 2006, following FOI requests made several years ago.

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  • Growth in ethanol plants is changing commodity markets in the U.S.

    The explosive growth in ethanol plants in the Midwest United States may mean that much of America's corn currently sent for export will stay at home, marking a profound shift in U.S. commodity markets.

    Indeed, if a quarter of proposed Midwest ethanol plants come into production, up to half of the corn grown in these states which is now exported could be diverted to domestic ethanol production, according to a new report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).

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  • New edition of The World Economy: A Global Analysis

    A new edition of a book by Horst Siebert, president-emeritus of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany, and Heinz Nixdorf Professor for European Studies at the Bologna Center of Johns Hopkins University, uses up to date empirical evidence to illuminate the mechanics of the world as a single entity. The third edition of The World Economy: A Global Analysis explores the world economy and its diverse mechanisms of interdependence, shocks and disturbances, economic processes and structures, as well as the institutional arrangements that guide these processes.

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Events

  • Farmsubsidy.org Conference

    26 Jan 2006 - 27 Jan 2006, Budapest, Hungary

    Farmsubsidy.org is planning to hold a two-day conference on Transparency in European Union Farm Subsidies in Budapest, Hungary in January. The conference will assemble current participants in the Farmsubsidy.org network and people who would like to become involved in promoting greater transparency in European Union agricultural policies. Farmsubsidy.org is a project coordinated by the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting (DICAR) and EU Transparency, a non-profit organisation in the UK.

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  • 26th European Agricultural Outlook

    27 Mar 2007 - 28 Mar 2007, London, England

    Agra Informa Ltd., a company that specializes in information on agriculture and food policy, markets and trade, is hosting its 26th European Agricultural Outlook Conference this year in London on 27 - 28 March 2007. The conference will offer analysis of the challenges and opportunities ahead for the European food industry and agribusiness, with representatives from government, agriculture and the food industry.

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