On the characterisation and measurement of the redistributive effects of agricultural policy

This paper provides a characterisation of the redistributive effects of agricultural policy, which yields consistent measures of horizontal inequities in the provision of support arising from both unequal treatment of pre-transfer income equals and systematic reranking of pretransfer income unequals. An illustrative study shows that the distribution of support would have reduced farm income inequality in Scotland but for the adverse redistributive consequences of horizontal inequities, although neither systematic discrimination between farm types nor systematic reranking proves to be the major source of such inequities. The imperfect targeting of support revealed by the empirical findings has implications for policy design.