Methodologies for Measuring Agricultural Price Intervention Effects

摘要

This paper describes the use of micro-economic, informal methodologies in six country case studies (Argentina, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Thailand and Yugoslavia) and in subsequent additional analysis. The research has confirmed that there is extensive intervention with market forces by governments in LDCs, which has turned the domestic terms of trade against agriculture and has significantly efficiency and income distribution effects. The methodologies -- which include the use of nominal and effective protection coefficients, domestic resource cost, and net economic benefit coefficients, producer and consumer subsidy equivalents and producer and consumer surpluses -- are evaluated in terms of their capacity: (a) to provide Bank staff with operationally useful instruments of analysis; (b) to offer appropriate advice to client country governments and their planning institutions concerned with pricing policies; and (c) to help bridge the methodological gap between project cost benefit analysis on the one hand and sector and country economic work on the other hand. (Copyright (c) The World Bank 1980.)