Producers' entitlement guarantees: A serious option for liberalizing Japan's rice and dairy sectors
Abstract Liberalization of Japan's rice and dairy markets along the lines proposed by GATT in December 1991 is politically and financially feasible. Tradable producers' entitlement guarantees (PEGs) are an income support measure which is partly decoupled from price support. The fact that PEGs would still bear some relationship to output would make a gradual liberalization of trade much more acceptable to farmers, who could be fully compensated for the loss in income caused by greater exposure to foreign competition. PEGs would still cause moderate trade distortions, however, which would decrease as tariffs were reduced and eventually disappear with them. PEGs could thus provide a useful platform for persuading the Japanese government to liberalize agriculture.
AN ASSESSMENT OF DEFICIENCY PAYMENTS TO MILK PRODUCERS IN JAPAN
This article represents an econometric assessment of the role that deficiency payments have played in developing the Japanese fluid and manufacturing milk markets and the potential effects of reducing deficiency payments on these milk markets. Principal findings are: (a) an historical simulation of the model without deficiency payments and import quotas indicates that these measures have reduced the variation in milk prices that would have otherwise occurred under this model, and price supports through these measures have resulted in greater milk production than would have accrued without price supports; and (b) a reduction in deficiency payments beginning in 1998 results in a decrease in milk prices and manufacturing milk supply and an increase in fluid milk supply and dairy imports, but fluid milk prices soon stop declining. The policy implications of such a decline in deficiency payments are discussed.
Affordable housing in London
Introduction. The Housing Situation in London. Housing, Land Use Planning, and the Government of London, a Brief History. Land Use Regulations. Positive Local Authority Powers in London. Sources of Affordable Housing: the Rented Sectors. Grants to Assist Access to Affordable Housing. Conclusions. Bibliography.