IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/eaae89/232587.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evaluating the Benefits from Liberalization: are Standard Walrassian Models Relevant?

Author

Listed:
  • Boussard, Jean-Marc
  • Gérard, Françoise
  • Piketty, Marie Gabrielle

Abstract

While measuring the benefits from liberalisation is obviously important, from a theoretical as well as from a political point of view, one may question the validity of the presently widespread Walrassian approach. The latter does not take account of the fact that supply is just as must (and perhaps more) risk as (average) price responsive. Now, it turns out that if (contrary to the strong versions of the “rational expectation hypothesis”), producers do not take their decisions on the basis of equilibrium prices only, then the market, instead of equilibrium, can generate very harmful seemingly random fluctuations. These considerations are incorporated into a partial equilibrium model of the world sugar industry, and a GTAP style general equilibrium model of the world economy. In both cases, liberalisation, preventing price stabilisation policies, results in more instability, and a decrease in welfare. Such an outcome is specific of agriculture and other low price elasticity commodities.

Suggested Citation

  • Boussard, Jean-Marc & Gérard, Françoise & Piketty, Marie Gabrielle, 2005. "Evaluating the Benefits from Liberalization: are Standard Walrassian Models Relevant?," 89th Seminar, February 2-5, 2005, Parma, Italy 232587, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:eaae89:232587
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.232587
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/232587/files/Boussard%20et%20al%202005%20Evaluating%20the%20Benefits%20from%20Liberalization-are%20Standard%20Walrassian%20Models%20Relevant.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.232587?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Boussard, J.M. & Gerard, F. & Piketty, M.G. & Christensen, A.K. & Voituriez, T., 2004. "May the pro-poor impacts of trade liberalisation vanish because of imperfect information?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 297-305, December.
    2. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    3. Malcolm D. Bale & Ernst Lutz, 1979. "The Effects of Trade Intervention on International Price Instability," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 61(3), pages 512-516.
    4. Hans P. Binswanger, 1980. "Attitudes Toward Risk: Experimental Measurement in Rural India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(3), pages 395-407.
    5. Just, Richard E., 2003. "Risk research in agricultural economics: opportunities and challenges for the next twenty-five years," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 75(2-3), pages 123-159.
    6. Just, Richard E & Zilberman, David, 1986. "Does the Law of Supply Hold under Uncertainty?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 96(382), pages 514-524, June.
    7. Marie-Gabrielle Piketty & Jean-Marc Boussard, 2002. "Conséquences possibles de la libéralisation des échanges de sucre: deux modèles et leurs réponses," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 270(1), pages 3-18.
    8. Malcolm D. Bale & Ernst Lutz, 1981. "Price Distortions in Agriculture and Their Effects: An International Comparison," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 63(1), pages 8-22.
    9. Timmer, C. Peter, 2000. "The macro dimensions of food security: economic growth, equitable distribution, and food price stability," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 283-295, June.
    10. Boussard, Jean-Marc, 1996. "When risk generates chaos," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 433-446, May.
    11. Hertel, Thomas, 1997. "Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and applications," GTAP Books, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, number 7685, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boussard, Jean-Marc & Gerard, Francoise & Piketty, Marie Gabrielle & Ayouz, Mourad & Voituriez, Tancrede, 2006. "Endogenous risk and long run effects of liberalization in a global analysis framework," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 457-475, May.
    2. Sophie Mitra & Jean‐Marc Boussard, 2012. "A simple model of endogenous agricultural commodity price fluctuations with storage," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(1), pages 1-15, January.
    3. Jean-Marc Boussard, 2000. "Agriculture, équilibre général et OMC," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 257(1), pages 3-16.
    4. Marcela Ibanez & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2023. "Income Risk, Precautionary Saving, and Loss Aversion – An Empirical Test," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2023_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    5. Goldzahl, Léontine, 2017. "Contributions of risk preference, time orientation and perceptions to breast cancer screening regularity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 147-157.
    6. Innes, Robert, 1987. "Government Target Price Intervention in Economies with Incomplete Markets: Welfare and Distribution," 1987 Annual Meeting, August 2-5, East Lansing, Michigan 270102, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    7. François Desmoulins-Lebeault & Luc Meunier, 2018. "Moment Risks: Investment for Self and for a Firm," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 15(4), pages 242-266, December.
    8. Fabienne Féménia & Alexandre Gohin, 2010. "Faut-il une intervention publique pour stabiliser les marchés agricoles ? Revue des questions non résolues," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 91(4), pages 435-456.
    9. Boussard, Jean-Marc, 2006. "Consequences of price volatility in evaluating the benefits of liberalisation," MPRA Paper 4467, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Boussard, J.M. & Gerard, F. & Piketty, M.G. & Christensen, A.K. & Voituriez, T., 2004. "May the pro-poor impacts of trade liberalisation vanish because of imperfect information?," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 297-305, December.
    11. Harold Alderman & Christina H. Paxson, 1994. "Do the Poor Insure? A Synthesis of the Literature on Risk and Consumption in Developing Countries," International Economic Association Series, in: Edmar L. Bacha (ed.), Economics in a Changing World, chapter 3, pages 48-78, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Sabine Liebenehm & Ingmar Schumacher & Eric Strobl, 2024. "Rainfall shocks and risk aversion: Evidence from Southeast Asia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(1), pages 145-176, January.
    13. Dercon, Stefan, 1998. "Wealth, risk and activity choice: cattle in Western Tanzania," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-42, February.
    14. Nitsch, Volker & Sturm, Daniel, 2004. "The Trade Liberalization Effects of Regional Trade Agreements," Conference papers 331265, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. Onno Kuik, 2003. "Climate Change Policies, Energy Security and Carbon Dependency Trade-offs for the European Union in the Longer Term," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 221-242, September.
    16. Gine,Xavier & Jacoby,Hanan G. & Gine,Xavier & Jacoby,Hanan G., 2016. "Markets, contracts, and uncertainty in a groundwater economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7694, The World Bank.
    17. Xavier Vollenweider & Salvatore Di Falco & Cathal O�Donoghue, 2011. "Risk preferences and voluntary agrienvironmental schemes: does risk aversion explain the uptake of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme?," GRI Working Papers 48, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    18. Marcela Ibanez & Sebastian O. Schneider, 2021. "Income Risk, Precautionary Saving, and Loss Aversion – An Empirical Test," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2021_06, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    19. Coyle, Barry & Chambers, Robert G. & Schmitz, Andrew, 1986. "Economic Gains from Agricultural Trade: A Review and Bibliography," Miscellaneous Publications 319990, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    20. Trung X. Hoang & Nga V. T. Le, 2021. "Natural disasters and risk aversion: Evidence from Vietnam," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(3), pages 211-229, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:eaae89:232587. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eaaeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.