The agri-food sector is continuously confronted with major challenges. It is a complex
sector in the economy because of its important societal implications and embeddedness
within a broader rural system. Furthermore, the agricultural sector is a multi-agent
sector with a complex chain of inputs, intermediates, outputs and markets that are highly
regulated. Multi-agency and strong government regulation result in a complex institutional
system. The aim of this book is to bring a selected state-of-the-art of the
conceptual and empirical New Institutional Economics-inspired research by European
agricultural economists. Besides the social environment, the two main components
of the institutional environment are policies and markets. The title of this book tries to
capture the main subjects. For a farmer, as an economic producing actor and social agent,
his environment comprises of politics, markets and rurality, of which the first is seeking
to get more ordering in the two others. Furthermore, the term rural in the title tries to
capture, both in policies and markets, the usual agricultural activities as well as the
new ones which are more oriented to the rural social system. This book focuses on the
three main areas of interest in institutions: policy implementation, market and supply
chain organisation and management of rural resources and rural systems. The chapters are
covering insights on the significance of institutions on transaction costs, policy
analysis, policy reform, market and chain dynamics, input markets, agri-environmental
policies, social capital and bottom-up approaches.
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction: Analysis of institutions, a new lens to rural policies and
agricultural markets.
Part 1: TCE, a state-of-the-art.
Chapter 2. Transaction cost economics and agriculture: An excursion.
Part 2: Policy reform, institutional determinants and outcomes.
Chapter 3. The subtle art of major institutional reform. Introducing property rights in
the Iceland fisheries.
Chapter 4. The role of institutions in the negotiations for accession to the European
Union.
Chapter 5. The European Parliament: from a consultative to a decisive institution in
the CAP making process.
Chapter 6. The reorientation process of the CAP support: Modulation of direct payments.
Part 3: Formalisation of the links between institutions and policy.
Chapter 7. Rules and equilibria: A formal conceptualisation of institutions with an
application to Norwegian agricultural policy making.
Chapter 8. Decision-making on the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU: The influence
of the European Commission.
Chapter 9. The Role of institutions in agricultural protectionism.
Chapter 10. Political institutions and milk policy outcomes in OECD countries.
Part 4: Institutions in policy analysis.
Chapter 11. An agent-based analysis of different direct payment schemes for the
Germanregion 'Hohenlohe'.
Chapter 12. Organisation of knowledge transfer in agricultural policy analysis.
Part 5: Market metamorphosis and chain dynamics.
Chapter 13. Markets in metamorphosis: The rise and fall of policy institutions.
Chapter 14. Food system value chains: Implications for agricultural policy.
Chapter 15. Real options: Institutional and policy implications for competitive and
interrelated markets.
Chapter 16. Vertical alliances for origin labelled food products: what is the most
relevant economic model of analysis?
Chapter 17. Time series analysis of a principal-agent model to assess risk shifting in
agricultural marketing channels: An application to the Dutch ware potato marketing
channel.
Part 6. Arrangements in input markets.
Chapter 18. Policy intervention on a market with pervasive agency relations: lessons
from the Polish agricultural credit programme.
Chapter 19. European integration, foreign investment, and institutional restructuring
in the Polish agri-food sector.
Chapter 20. Emerging institutions in East European land markets. Evidence from Hungary.
Part 7: New institutions in agro-environmental policies and public good delivery.
Chapter 21. Borderlines for a common agricultural policy of multifunctional
agriculture.
Chapter 22. The role of agri-environmental measures in the definition of property
rights.
Chapter 23. Institutional analysis of the Flemish buy out regulation for pig holdings.
Chapter 24. Policies and institutions for agriculture and environment in Central and
Eastern European Countries.
Chapter 25. Institutions and policies for sustainable land management in the Czech
Republic.
Part 8: Role of social capital and bottom-up approaches in rural development.
Chapter 26. A social capital perspective on the institutional changes in transitional
agriculture of CEE countries.
Chapter 27. The role of social capital in promoting institutional changes in
transitional agriculture.
Chapter 28. Making sense of bottom-up in rural development.
Chapter 29. New institutions in European Rural Development Programmes: between the top
down and bottom-up approach. The case of Andalusia (Southern Spain).
Bibliographic & ordering Information
Hardbound, 484 pages