The Impact of Agricultural Subsidies on the Corn Market with Farm Heterogeneity and Endogenous Entry and Exit

We develop a model with farm-level heterogeneity in productivity and endogenous entry and exit decisions to analyze the effect of price supports and direct payments on the U.S. corn market. The analytical results show that, contrary to the existing literature, removal of direct payments augments pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Stephen Devadoss, Mark J. Gibson, Jeff Luckstead
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Western Agricultural Economics Association 2016-09-01
Series:Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/246251
Description
Summary:We develop a model with farm-level heterogeneity in productivity and endogenous entry and exit decisions to analyze the effect of price supports and direct payments on the U.S. corn market. The analytical results show that, contrary to the existing literature, removal of direct payments augments productivity while removal of price supports does not impact productivity, and direct payments can lead to larger production distortions than price supports under certain conditions. The simulation results corroborate the theoretical findings in that if both policies are equal in magnitude, then direct payments result in larger price, output, and welfare distortions than price supports.
ISSN:1068-5502
2327-8285