Agricultural Markets Beyond Liberalization

Agricultural markets have entered a long-term process of liberalization, with the aim of reducing imposed market imperfections such as monopolistic public trade, entry barriers and subsidies. The experience of more than a decade of agriculture liberalization offers a good opportunity to review and analyze the outcome of this process and to draw lessons for the future. The central topic in this study is the relationship between market structure and how markets perform in a dynamic context during a liberalization process. The topic is studied from both a micro- and macroeconomic viewpoint and looks at different types of agricultural markets. This volume brings together the dynamics of agricultural markets in several parts of the world, with a special focus on transition economics and Africa. The different studies cover geographical areas rangng from local neighbouhoods to groups of countries, and institutions ranging from individual contracts to multi-national organizations. The analysis of liberalization under a variety of circumstances, and the different methods of analysis used by the authors provide a useful foundation for the assessment of liberalization.