Agricultural policy: A global view

Agricultural and food markets have been subjected to some of the most heavy-handed governmental interventions. Some of the policy developments in this sector since the 1950s have been sudden and transformational, whereas others have been gradual but persistent. The trends and fluctuations in market distortions have recently been revealed in a rich global data set covering a half-century of evidence for 82 countries. Political-economy explanations for the patterns of interventions have also been explored in recent literature. Together these advances shed light on the conditions under which future welfare-improving agricultural and food policy reforms may be feasible.