标题：ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE, AND THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AGRICULTURAL PROTECTION: AN ECONOMETRIC STUDY OF BELGIUM SINCE THE 19TH CENTURY
摘要：This empirical study uses one hundred years of annual data on eleven agriculturalcommodities from Belgium to measure the impact of structural changes coinciding witheconomic development and changes in political institutions on agricultural protection. Theanalysis shows that changes in agricultural protection are caused by a combination offactors. Governments have increased protection and support to farmers when world marketprices for their commodities fell, and vice versa, offsetting market effects on producerincomes. Other economic determinants were the share of the commodities in total consumerexpenditures (negative effect) and in total output of the economy (positive effect). WithBelgium a small economy, there was no impact of the trade position. Some changes inpolitical institutions have affected agricultural protection. Democratic reforms whichinduced a significant shift in the political balance towards agricultural interests, such as theintroduction of the one-man-one-vote system, led to an increase in agricultural protection.The integration of Belgian agricultural policies in the Common Agricultural Policy in 1968coincided with an increase in protection, ceteris paribus. Both institutional factors, related tochanges in access to and information about the decision-making at the EU level, andstructural changes in the Belgian agricultural and food economy may explain this effect.
关键词：Agricultural protection; political economy; economic development; institutional;change
