Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:09:07.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Critique of Federal Agricultural Programs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2015

E. C. Pasour Jr.*
Affiliation:
North Carolina State University

Extract

Criticism of current agricultural programs is coming from within and outside agriculture. Secretary Bergland in recent “grassroots hearings” has called for new approaches in agricultural policy in which recipient benefits do not hinge on size of farming operation. Hjort suggests that despite widespread agreement on the objective of encouraging the family farm, “the cumulative effect of our farm programs may well have been to hasten the concentration of the farm sector….” (Hjort, p. 748). Producers of flue-cured tobacco voted overwhelmingly in December 1979 to continue a program but are upset about high quota rental prices. Outside agriculture, consumers are unhappy about the effects of farm programs on prices of milk, sugar, and other products. Students of the political process are concerned about the effects of the use of state power by small, politically powerful groups to secure economic gains.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Becker, Gary S.Competition and Democracy.J. Law andEcon. 1(1958):105–9.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary S.Economic Theory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.Google Scholar
Bickers, Chris. “Commentary.The Flue-Cured Tobacco Farmer, December 1979, 24.Google Scholar
Bosworth, Barry P.Cumulative Impacts of Regulation.A mer. J. Agr. Econ. 61(1979):791–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, James M.et al.The Economics of Politics, IE A Readings 18. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs, 1978.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James M.What Should Economists Do? Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Bullock, J. B., Nieuwoudt, W. L., and Pasour, E. C. Jr.Land Values and Allotment Rents.Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 59(1977):380–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheung, Steven N.S.The Myth of Social Cost, Hobart Pap. 82. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs, 1978.Google Scholar
Council for Agricultural Science and Technology. Impact of Government Regulations on the Beef Industry, Rep. No. 79, October 1979.Google Scholar
Dahlman, Carl J.The Problem of Externality.J. Law andEcon. 22(1979):141–62.Google Scholar
Demsetz, Harold. “Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint.J. Law and Econ. 12(1969): 121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, Antony. Fisher's Concise History of Economic Bungling. Ottawa, Ill.: Caroline House Books, 1978.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. Price Theory. Chicago: Aldine, 1976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Bruce L.Commodity Options for Agriculture.Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 59(1977):986–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Bruce L.The Governing of Agriculture (mimeo.), 1979.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A.The Use of Knowledge in Society.Amer. Econ. Rev. 35(1945):519–30. Reprinted as Chap. 4 in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1948.Google Scholar
Hayek, F. A.The Pretence of Knowledge.Swed. J. Econ. 77(1975):433–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, F. A.Law, Legislation and Liberty, Vol. 3, The Political Order of a Free People. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hjort, Howard W.Regulation and Economic Analysis in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 61(1979):746–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochman, Harold M. and Rodgers, J. D.. “Pareto Optimal Redistribution.Amer. Econ. Rev. 59(1969):542–57.Google Scholar
Kau, James B. and Rubin, Paul H.. “Self-Interest, Ideology, and Logrolling in Congressional Voting.J. Law and Econ. 22(1979):365–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laferney, Preston E. and Penn, J. B.. “Price and Income Policy Issues.Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 61(1979):807–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamm, R. McFall. “Effects of Control on the Domestic Peanut Industry.Agr. Econ. Res. 31(1979):719.Google Scholar
Littlechild, S. C.The Fallacy of the Mixed Economy, Hobart Pap. 80. London: The Institute of Economic Affairs, 1978.Google Scholar
Luttrell, Clifton B.Rising Farm Exports and International Trade Policies.Fed. Res. Bank St. Louis Rev. 6(1979):310.Google Scholar
MacAvoy, Paul W., ed. The Crisis of the Regulatory Commissions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1970.Google Scholar
MacAvoy, Paul W.The Regulated Industries and the Economy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1979.Google Scholar
Mitchell, William C.The Anatomy of Public Failure: A Public Choice Perspective, Orig. Pap. 13. Los Angeles: International Institute for Economic Research, 1978.Google Scholar
Niskanen, William A. Jr.Bureaucracy and Representative Government. Chicago: Aldine, 1971.Google Scholar
Pasour, E. C. Jr.Cost of Production: A Defensible Basis for Agricultural Price Supports?Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 62(1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philbrook, Clarence. “Realism in Policy Espousal.A mer. Econ. Rev. 43(1953):846–59.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard A.The Social Costs of Monopoly and Regulation.J. Polit. Econ. 83(1975):807–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Progressive Farmer. “Editorial,” December 1979, 130.Google Scholar
Pugh, Charles R.1980 Tobacco Situation. North Carolina Agr. Ext. Ser. AG-187, December 1979.Google Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A.The Consumer Does Benefit From Feasible Price Stability.Quart. J. Econ. 86(1972):476–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schultz, T. W.On Economics and Politics of Agriculture,” pp. 323 in Distortions of Agricultural Incentives, Schultz, T. W., ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Schultz, T. W.Distortions of Economic Research,” paper prepared for Social Science 50th Anniversary Celebration, University of Chicago, December 16, 1979.Google Scholar
Seagraves, James A. and Manning, R. C.. Flue-Cured Tobacco Allotment Values and Uncertainty, Econ. Res. Rep. 2, Department of Economics, North Carolina State University, 1967.Google Scholar
Seitz, Wesley. “Environmental Regulation: A Framework for Determining Research Needs.Amer. J. Agr. Econ. 61(1979):818–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stigler, George J.The Theory of Economic Regulation.Bell J. Econ. 2(1971):321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. “The Welfare Costs of Tariffs, Monopolies, and Theft.W. Econ. J. 5(1967):224–32.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. “The Charity of the Uncharitable.W. Econ. J. 9(1971):379–92.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. “The Transitional Gains Trap.Bell J. Econ. 6(1975):671–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farm Income Statistics, ESCS Statist. Bull. No. 627, October 1979.Google Scholar
Wanniski, Jude. The Way the World Works. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.Google Scholar
Waugh, F. V.Does the Consumer Benefit from Price Instability?Quart. J. Econ. 58(1944):602–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, Charles Jr.A Theory of Nonmarket Failure: Framework for Implementation Analysis.J. Law and Econ. 22(1979):107–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar