and Overview -- and Overview -- New Directions in Agricultural Policy: US and European Perspectives -- Recent Developments and Applications from the OECD Toolbox -- US and EU Agricultural Policy: Divergence or Convergence? -- The “Health Check” of the CAP Reform: Lessons from Its Impact Assessment -- The Incidence of US Farm Programs -- Agricultural Policy and Economic Performance -- Impact of Subsidies on Farm Productivity and Efficiency -- Productivity and Profitability of US Agriculture: Evidence from a Panel of States -- Energy and Agricultural Policy -- Biofuels Expansion in a Changing Economic Environment: A Global Modeling Perspective -- Ethanol and Corn Prices: The Role of US Tax Credits, Mandates, and Imports -- Modeling the Effects of U.S. Biofuel Policies on Commodity and Energy Markets -- Biofuels Versus Food Competition for Agricultural Resources: Impacts on the EU Farming Systems -- International Trade and Domestic Agricultural Policy -- WTO Compliance and Domestic Farm Policy Change -- Agricultural Competitiveness -- The Behavior of Relative Food Prices: An Analysis across the European Countries -- Commodity Programs and Risk Management -- The Political Economy of the US Crop Insurance Program -- Aggregation and Arbitrage in Joint Production -- Standard and Bayesian Random Coefficient Model Estimation of US Corn–Soybean Farmer Risk Attitudes.

The recent reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union extend in a significant way the “decoupling” process started some ten years earlier. By adopting the Single Farm Payment (SFP) scheme only limited support for agriculture is tied to current production decisions. This is also true of U.S. farm policy. The reform act of 1996 introduced greater planting flexibility, shifted some support to direct payments, and eliminated the authority for acreage reduction programs. The 2002 and 2008 Acts retained these features. However, they added countercyclical components to direct payments based on market prices and historic production, and allowed for updating of base acreage underlying direct payments. These steps arguably reintroduced ties between support and production decisions. This volume explores the economic implications of these recent changes in the design of agricultural policies for the economic performance of the sector in the European Union and the United States. The book is organized around five themes: (1) New Directions in Agricultural Policy: U.S. and EU Perspectives; (2) Agricultural Policy and Economic performance; (3) Energy and Agricultural Policy; (4) International Trade and Agricultural Policy; and (5) Commodity Programs and Risk Management. The authors apply rigorous tools to analyze the impact and implications of current agricultural policies on efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness in the sector, and consider opportunities for improvement in policymaking and practice.