Aims

This class aims to provide the student with :
1. a good knowledge of the institutional facts of the evolution of the Common Agricultural Policy, its several reforms and its international context,
2. the ability to understand and explain these facts and reforms and, to some extent, anticipate them,
3. the ability to analyse the socio-economic effects of the instruments of the agricultural, food and rural policy with methods from the neo-classical economic theory.

Main themes

The main theme of this class is the economic analysis of decisions made in terms of agricultural and food policy and rural development as well as their micro- and macro-economic effects. An emphasis is given to the study and the socio-economic and environmental implications of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union and its evolution towards a policy more oriented to rural development.

Content and teaching methods

After a short introduction on the nature and the process of decision making for economic policy, this class examines the contribution of economics in formulating economic policy, in particular in the agricultural and food sector. The class identifies the keys problems of the agricultural and food sector through its industrial evolution and the current constraints of this sector in Europe. The governmental interventions progressively aimed at the agricultural and food sector and rural areas are then examined and compared among countries with a market economy. The objectives, the instruments and the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy and its successive reforms are emphasized. The food policy of the European Union is analysed within the framework of the Single Market. In parallel to these agricultural, food and rural policies, the effects of the trade policies of countries with a market economy on the international trade are analysed. This analysis introduces the preferential trade agreements of the European Union and the international negotiations of the World Trade Organisation. The class ends with the evolution of the agricultural, food and rural policies at the beginning of this millennium.

Other information (prerequisite, evaluation (assessment methods), course materials recommended readings, ...)

Precursory courses Political Economics or Micro-economics, Rural economics or Economics of Natural Resources
Supplemental courses Evaluation of Agricultural Policy, Seminar of Rural Economics, Analysis of Agricultural Markets, Strategy of the Firms in the Food Supply Chains
Evaluation Written examination, term paper
Support Syllabus, Textbooks, Journal Articles

Other credits in programs