Since the end of the quasi-moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMO) in the European Union in 2004, the establishment of GMO-free zones has become an EU wide phenomenon. In contrast to other European countries, Germany follows the concept of cooperative GMO-free zones where neighbouring...

In this paper an institutional policy approach is outlined that interprets rural development as a problem of public goods provision. It is argued that rural development policy should focus on the establishment of institutional arrangements that provide rural public goods effectively. Incentive...

Our micro-econometric analysis of agricultural credit market outcomes in Poland sheds new light on the relationship between contractual arrangements and interest rates. An innovative theoretical framework based on a hedonic market model is developed. We interpret the factors that influence...

This paper reviews three arguments why government should not directly finance public goods provision in the countryside: (1) sorting and voting of residents leads to efficient local public goods provision, (2) community governance may better cope with incomplete contracting in public goods, and...

Politicians and farm lobbyists frequently use the argument that agricultural policy is necessary to safeguard jobs in agriculture. We explore whether this is true by conducting an econometric ex-post evaluation of the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the three East German...

Decollectivisation in post-Soviet agriculture has generally been slow except for islands of complete individualisation. Our model interlinks two types of critical mass phenomena that can explain these outcomes. First, positive network externalities reshape decollectivisation incentives after a...

Our aim is to investigate whether the direct payments and rural development measures of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) do make jobs in agriculture safer. We work with a dynamic labour demand equation that is augmented by the full set of policy instruments of the CAP. It is estimated...