Renewable resources gain in importance in our modern society. The line of reasoning is based on their positive effects on agriculture, the environment and the economy. To support renewable energy from biomass the EU promotes the cultivation of energy crops. A spatial equilibrium model is applied...

Developing country producers face several constraints related to food safety standards imposed by developed countries. The purpose of this study is to identify factors affecting export flows with respect to food safety standards; and to measure the effects of food safety standards on exports....

A simple but new theoretical approach is used to analyse ex-ante the impact of tariff reduction. This methodology is based on the assumption of a constant price relation between each direct substitutable product. No elasticities are needed, but accurate import and domestic prices of the most...

The CAP Health Check in 2008 may result in fundamental changes in EU dairy policy. An expansion of the EU dairy quota is being strongly considered as a prelude to the elimination of the quota mechanism by 2014/15. This paper addresses the implications of such a reform for EU and Irish dairy...

The European Commission proposes a minimum of 10 % biofuels in the total transport fuel use by 2020. The new 10% minimum target in 2020 is combined with the existing regulation, which fixes the target at 5.75% in 2010. This paper will in particular investigates how a full implementation of the...

The Common Agricultural Policy is modelled as a club good providing the European Union (EU) farmer with financial benefits. We build an economic model which explains how much farmers in individual EU countries invest in rent-seeking activities in order to test for free-riding behaviour on...

Paper removed by author for revision 12/09/08.

The price-wedge method yields a tariff-equivalent estimate of technical barriers to trade (TBT). An extension of this method accounts for imperfect substitution between domestic and imported goods and incorporates recent findings on trade costs. We explore the sensitivity of this revamped tariff...

It is well documented that consumers tend to be patriotic in their choices of food. This paper theoretically examines the consequences of such patriotic behavior for agricultural policy, assuming that the policy is decided by the median voter. The analysis is conducted in the framework of a...

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the competitive performance of the EU countries for food trade in the European market during the period 1990-2003. To assess such performance the analysis considers comparative advantage and evaluates three indices: export market share (EMS), revealed...