Publications > Cahiers (English)> N° 66, 1st term 2003

• Varietal utility and patriotic preference : the case of European agriculture, G. PHILIPPIDIS, L.J. HUBBARD
  
• Multifonctionnalité de l’agriculture et territoires : des concepts aux politiques publiques, A. MOLLARD texte au format PDF
  [Multifunctionality of agriculture and territories : from concepts to public policies]
  
• The structure of food demand in Tunisia : a differential system approach, A. LAAJIMI, B. DHEHIBI, J.M. GIL
  

COMPTES RENDUS DE LECTURE

A. SCHMITZ, H. FURTAN and K. BAYLIS, Agricultural Policy, Agribusiness, and Rent-Seeking Behaviour, by M. Petit ; V.E. BALL et G.W. NORTON (eds), Agricultural Productivity : Measurement and Sources of Growth, by B. Larue ; M. BENITAH, The Law of Subsidies under the GATT/WTO System, by L. Brink ; M. FERRIÈRES, Histoire des peurs alimentaires, du Moyen Âge à l’aube du XXe siècle, by O. Allais et A. Lhuissier

Varietal utility and patriotic preference : the case of European agriculture

George PHILIPPIDIS*, Lionel J. HUBBARD** (* Bradford Centre for International Development, University of Bradford, BD7 1DP, UK. e-mail : g.philippidis@bradford.ac.uk - ** School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, University of Newcastle, NE1 7RU, UK. e-mail : lionel.hubbard@ncl.ac.uk)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 66, 2003, pp 5-25

Summary - We suggest that opportunity cost estimates of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) may be overstated, with potential allocative efficiency gains offset by negative utility effects associated with the loss of domestic food varieties. This is based on an application of the theoretical result that protection of an industry in the presence of product differentiation and home-bias can be welfare-improving. To illustrate the effects of varietal diversity in foods on the economic cost of the CAP, we incorporate asymmetry in consumers’preferences, based on region of origin and characterised by a single preferred (domestic) variety, in a CGE trade model with imperfectly-competitive food processing sectors and explicit representation of policy interventions. We show that consumer preference for domestically produced foods can create varietal utility in the EU sufficient to balance the economic cost of the CAP as conventionally measured. This varietal effect is most pronounced in meat processing which benefits from high levels of tariff protection. However, an enlarged allocative efficiency loss to the EU economy means that the overall cost of the CAP is not eliminated. Moreover, whilst a varietal effect may mitigate the cost to the EU, universal application of the preference structure imposes an additional cost of the CAP on the rest of the world, arising effectively from a global redistribution of varietal utility. Thus, for the world as a whole, the net impact of the varietal effect is negligible, though the distributional impact is much greater. Protagonists of the CAP who may wish to cite varietal utility as a benefit hitherto overlooked, need to be mindful of the global implications.

Key-words : varietal effects, utility, patriotic preference, CAP.

Multifonctionnalité de l’agriculture et territoires : des concepts aux politiques publiques
[Multifunctionality of agriculture and territories : from concepts to public policies]

Amédée MOLLARD* (* GAEL, laboratoire d’économie appliquée de Grenoble, UMR INRA et Université Pierre Mendès-France, BP 47, 38040 Grenoble cedex 9. e-mail : mollard@grenoble.inra.fr)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 66, 2003, pp 27-54

Summary - This paper aims to contribute to better formalizing the useful tools and concepts for economic analysis of multifonctionnality – particularly the environmental services of agriculture. Facing the present multiplication of frameworks of analysis in that field, the concepts of externalities, public goods and joint-products seem to be extremely relevant. Moreover, the introduction of territorial dimension is likely to improve the smoothness of analysis. This more rigorous approach of the environmental “functions” of agriculture requires first of all to clarify relationships between these various concepts of the economic theory in the field of market failures and possible methods of regulation. It can be shown that internalizing positive and negative externalities of agriculture is extremely different according to the nature of the markets aimed at (specific or generic) and their degree of competition. It also appears that the policies of internalisation can prove more effective if they take into account territorial dimension.

Key-words : multifonctionality,externality, public goods,joint-products, public regulation, markets,competition.

The structure of food demand in Tunisia : a differential system approach

Abderraouf LAAJIMI*, Boubaker DHEHIBIL**, José Maria GIL** (* Département d’économie et de développement rural, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT), 43 avenue Charles Nicolle, 1002, Tunis Belvédère, Tunisie. e-mail : l_raouf@webmails.com - ** Unidad de Economia Agraria, Servicio de Investigación Agroalimentaria (DGA), P.O. Box 727, 50080 Zaragoza, Spain. e-mail : bdhehibi@aragob.es - chema.gil@upc.es)

In : Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, n° 66, 2003, pp 55-77

Summary - In this paper the evolution of food consumption in Tunisia is first described. In recent years, the pattern of food consumption in Tunisia has been changing. The factors behind these changes are both economic and socio-demographic. Two important aspects of these changes are : i) the reduction in relative terms of expenditure on food as real income increases (Engel’s law) and ii) the relative increase of manufactured products from agro-food industries in comparison to non processed products. In order to study the response of demand for food to prices and total expenditure, a differential demand system with fixed prices effects (CBS model), has been estimated, which better explains consumer’s food structure in Tunisia based on a time series of food data calculated from food balances compared with other models (Rotterdam, AIDS and NBR). Structural change is also considered. Calculated elasticities from the CBS model with both homogeneity and symmetry imposed are more sensitive to variations in total expenditure or in prices than in cross prices, even some relations of complementarity and substitution possibilities emerge. The demand is inelastic for all food groups. Finally, some policy and marketing considerations are provided on the basis of the empirical results.

Key-words : food consumption, demand system, differential approach, structural change, elasticities, Tunisia.