CJAE Special Issue on Ag Policy Reform: Call for Papers

Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics has issued a call for papers for its 2014 Special Issue: The Past, Present and Future of Government Regulation of Agriculture and Food:  Is There a New Economics of Food?

Editor-in-Chief:  Glenn Fox, University of Guelph

Motivation: Several governments have advocated evidence based policy making and have called for analysis to be conducted before regulations are implemented or changed. These initiatives are generally linked to efforts to reform policy making and to reduce the burdens imposed by existing policy measures that may have outlived their usefulness. Government regulation of agricultural markets was an important factor shaping the development of national agricultural economies during the second half of the 20^th century. A long list of policy measures includes price and output controls, the creation of statutory monopolies and monopsonies, border measures, the establishment of product definitions and standards, input subsidies as well as subsidies and programs to reduce the cost of risk bearing for farmers. Policy debates among agricultural economists and between those economists and political and farm leaders represent a rich intellectual and social tradition. 

The purpose of this special issue is to assess the future of the role of government in regulating national food and agricultural systems. Recent changes to the Canadian Wheat Board, ongoing efforts to restructure the Common Agricultural Policy, the declining influence of state trading enterprises as agricultural trade liberalization has proceeded and the divergent policy directions of countries like New Zealand and Australia, compared to Canada and the United States, are indications of a dynamic relationship between governments and the agricultural industries that operate within their borders. Even the regulation of product standards through government commodity grading systems is being overtaken by the private standards set by retailers. 

This special issue will provide a forum for rigorous innovative analysis of the role of government in the agriculture and food system. Possible topics would include examinations of the historical rationales for government regulation of agricultural markets.  Were those rationales valid at the time they were offered?  Are they valid today? Public choice analysis of agricultural policies in the developed and the less developed agricultural economies could examine the incentives that exist in political institutions and the influence of those incentives on policy development. Theoretical, empirical and applied contributions to evaluating the performance of agricultural policies are encouraged. Critical examinations of the significance of both market and policy failures related to agricultural markets are needed.  

How to Participate: Abstracts should be submitted to cjae@uvic.ca before January 1, 2013. Manuscripts for selected abstracts will be due May 15, 2013. Final accepted papers will be published in the December 2014 issue of the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics.  All manuscripts will be subject to double-blind peer review.