Politique agricole et bien-être des consommateurs

The Swiss agriculture is considered to be one of the more subsidized in the world. Using an applied general equilibrium model, we study the effects of two reforms of the agricultural policy on the welfare of various categories of households. Our framework of analysis allows to take into account the high number of agricultural policy instruments set up by the government. The analysis of the reform AP 2002 shows that, in spite of almost non-existent aggregate welfare gains, great disparities appear between the various households considered. The farmers are by far the losers whereas the pensioners and the wealthy employees profit largely from the reform. With regard to project AP 2007, the effect of an auction of the tariff quotas is positive for most of the households in the sense that it increases their welfare gains compared to the reform AP 2002. However, the farmers, the pensioners as well as some other households do not improve their situation compared to AP 2002. As a whole, the project AP 2007 is nevertheless positive for the population except for the farmers and the some other households.