Università degli Studi di Pavia - Faculty of Economics

COURSE CONTENTS

The role of agriculture and agribusiness in:
- Agricultural-based countries
- Transforming countries
- Urbanised countries
- Industrialised countries

Globalization in food and agriculture
- The waves of globalisation and the role of the agrifood system
- The main features of globalisation and the correlates of success (free trade and outward-oriented policies; free movement of capital and the emergence of transnational companies; international flows of knowledge and technological innovations; greater mobility of people; geographic location and infrastructure)
- The impact on food consumption patterns

Global food demand and supply
- Demand trends
- Supply trends
- The role of agricultural commodity prices
- The problem of hunger

Trends and patterns in international agricultural trade
- Growth and instability in agricultural trade
- Importance of agricultural trade
- Composition of agricultural trade
- Competitiveness

Exchange Rates and agricultural trade
- Exchange rate and the foreign exchange market
- Balance of payments
- The International Monetary System
- Exchange rate determination

Why Nations trade
- Trade advantage: theory and trends
- Gains from trade: theory and trends

The agricultural policy landscape
- Trade and welfare
- Trade restrictions
- Why restrict trade?
- Agricultural trade policy making (evolution; domestic support; Export competition; market access)
- Impacts of agricultural trade reforms
- Domestic agricultural policy and trade distortions

Emerging issues in agricultural trade
- The formation of preferential trading agreements
- Trade, food security and food safety
- GMOs: emerging disputes over food safety, environment and biotechnology;
- Biomass issues
- Agriculture’s natural resources management

SYLLABUS

In the light of the relevance of the economic theory of trade to decision-making in agribusiness, the course aims to:
- Provide an overview of recent trends and emerging issues in general and agricultural trade as a background to the farm agribusiness decision to trade and explaining the most relevant trade and competitiveness indicators
- Introduce some of the theoretical concepts and arguments, and illustrate their usefulness in the examination of agricultural trade
- Review the main trade policy instruments introduced by governments to protect farmers from external competition, and assess the impacts of such instruments
- Explain how to measure the scope for protection in agriculture by means of protection indicators
- Describe the treatment of agriculture in the GATT and WTO