The study examines some of the economic consequences of the Common Agricultural Policy. It does so from a global view; the intention being to exircise economic theory within a recognisable framework. A these which emerged wes one of unresolved conflict between various interest groups. The manipulation of farm prices has an impact upon the economic system, and this has been an object of study. Because produce prices determine the fortunes of some individuals in relation to others there are conflicts of interest; for eile the triangle of producers, consumers and taxpayers. But the advantages gained by producers will be limited by the elasticities of factor supply to the farm sector without limit to the costs imposed upon society, because of the 'open-ended' nature of the policy. Equally producers find that a common met of produce prices cannot meet all the stated objectives of farm policy and consequently conflicts follow within the farm vector. And more interesting conflicts flow for an economic union in which the taxation unit does not correspond to the political unit. There is taxation without representation in that consumers pay inflated prices to foreign farmers. Other issues which arose included the location of production and the determination of a foreign trade policy, both of which involve the advantages to be gained by the nation as against that of the larger grouping. A serious conflict is that caused by the interplay of exchange rate variations and common intervention prices, because then the farm policy has a direct impact upon national macro-economic policy. It would sees that the present farm policy must be modified if it in not to prejudge the question of greater or lesser flexibility in national exchange rate regimes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:474356 |
| Date | January 1974 |
| Creators | Swinbank, A. |
| Publisher | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0111 seconds