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Measuring the social costs of suboptimal combinations of policy instruments: A general framework and an example

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  • D.S. Bullock
  • K. Salhofer

Abstract

Since most agricultural programs employ two or more policy instruments simultaneously, it is notable thai little research has attempted to find optimal instrument combinations and no research exists which evaluates the social costs (unrealized benefits) of combining instruments suboptimally. In our paper we report a simple and feasible method to find optimal policy instrument combinations, and we provide the first general, formal approach to measuring the social costs of suboptimal policy instrument combinations. Our approach is illustrated in an analysis for live major U.S. crops (corn, feed grains, wheat, rice, cotton). The simple model we employ for the illustration suggests that except lor the feed grains program, the observed programs combined policy instruments quite suboptimally. We conclude that agricultural economics research now can and should begin placing increased emphasis on studying optimal policy instrument combinations.

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  • D.S. Bullock & K. Salhofer, 1998. "Measuring the social costs of suboptimal combinations of policy instruments: A general framework and an example," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 18(3), pages 249-259, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:18:y:1998:i:3:p:249-259
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1574-0862.1998.tb00503.x
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    2. Friedrich Schneider & Klaus Salhofer & Erwin Schmid & Gerhard Streicher, 2001. "Was the Austrian agricultural policy least cost efficient?," Economics working papers 2001-03, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    3. Salhofer, Klaus & Schneider, Friedrich & Streicher, Gerhard, 1999. "Least Cost Efficiency Of Agricultural Programs: An Empirical Investigation," 1999 Annual meeting, August 8-11, Nashville, TN 21565, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    4. Bullock, David S. & Salhofer, Klaus, 2003. "Judging agricultural policies: a survey," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 225-243, May.

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