Measuring and interpreting intervention in agriculture

Abstract

Intervention includes all form of protection or taxation in agriculture irrespective
of the source, and includes for example price support, income support,
export tax, regulations whether marketing or technical, non-tariff barriers and
exchange rate distortions. In fact, all factors which cause the domestic price to
differ from the world price when measured at the same point in the marketing
chain. This paper surveys recent studies which illustrate measures of measuring
intervention and their welfare effects. Problems of interpreting these measurements
are discussed and suggestions are made for future analysis.