Alberto Valdés

Beyond the city : the rural contribution to development

Beyond the City evaluates the contribution of rural development and policies to growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental degradation in the rest of the economy, as well as in the rural space. This title brings together new theoretical and empirical treatments of the links between rural and national development. New findings and are combined with existing literature to enhance our understanding of the how rural economic activities contribute to various aspects of national development. The study is based on original research funded by the World Banks Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America and the Caribbean. Of particular relevance is the interaction between agricultural and territorial development issues. The empirical findings also make substantial contributions to the debate over the appropriate design of public policies aiming to enhance the rural contribution to national development, including economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and macroeconomic stability.

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America

This book provides an overview of the evolution of distortions to agricultural incentives caused by price and trade policies in the World Bank-defined region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Following the introduction and summary, it includes commissioned country studies of one Caribbean, one Central American, and six South American economies. The chapters are followed by two appendixes. The first describes the methodology used to measure the nominal and relative rates of assistance to farmers and the taxes and subsidies involved in food consumption; the second provides country and regional summaries, in tables, of annual estimates of these rates of assistance. This study on Latin America is based on a sample of eight countries, comprising the big four economies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico; Colombia and Ecuador, two of the poorest South American tropical countries; the Dominican Republic, the largest Caribbean economy; and Nicaragua, the poorest country in Central America. Together, in 2000-04, these countries accounted for 78 percent of the regions population, 80 percent of the regions agricultural value added, and 84 percent of the total gross domestic product (GDP) of Latin America.

The Agrarian Reform Experiment in Chile: History, Impact, and Implications

This paper presents what is known about the role of agrarian reform and the subsequent counter reform in producing a successful dynamic evolution of Chilean agriculture.

A profile of border protection in Egypt : an effective rate of protection approach adjusting for energy subsidies

This study examines recent effective rates of protection across the Egyptian economy, using an ad valorem price wedge introduced by nontariff barriers and energy subsidies, and compares todays effective rates of protection with those of a decade ago. The study uses 23 aggregated sectors from input-output matrix information. Although trade liberalization since the late-1990s has had a considerable impact in reducing protection of some industries, some sectors, such as the food and tobacco sector, remain relatively highly protected, due to tariff escalation and nontariff barriers, and due to energy subsidies. Energy subsidies are not formally sector specific but do favor sectors that are energy intensive (of particular note is the electricity sector). It appears that energy pricing is part of a strategy to subsidize and promote certain industries and in effect offset the dis-protection or taxation that results from tariffs on intermediate inputs. The case of the cement sector is notable because energy subsidies appear to almost exactly offset the negative impacts of tariffs and indirect taxes. The fertilizer sector has zero nominal tariffs, benefiting agriculture, and so a negative effective rate of protection due simply to tariffs on intermediate inputs. However, the fertilizer sector ends up with a very high a positive total effective rate of protection due to energy subsidies.

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America and the Caribbean

This is a product of a research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, under the leadership of Kym Anderson of the World Bank’s Development Research Group (www.worldbank.org/agdistortions). The authors acknowledge the invaluable help with data management by Ernesto Valenzuela and with data compilation by Johanna Croser, Esteban Jara, Marianne Kurzweil, Signe Nelgen, Francesca de Nicola and Damiano Sandri, helpful comments from workshop participants, and funding from World Bank Trust Funds provided by the governments of Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands (BNPP) and the United Kingdom (DfID) as well as the Rockefeller Foundation for use of the Bellagio Conference Center. This paper draws on the chapters in Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America, edited by K. Anderson and A. Valdés, Washington DC: World Bank, 2008. A revised version without the Appendix will appear as Ch. 7 in Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955 to 2007, edited by K. Anderson, London: Palgrave Macmillan and Washington DC: World Bank (forthcoming 2009).

Analysis of Agricultural Policies in Belize

This monograph provides a review of current protection measures for agricultural and food products in Belize. The document offers details on the following key indicators of support and protection (or disprotection) for several agricultural products: nominal rates of protection (NRPs), effective rates of protection (ERPs), and the total support estimates (TSE) that includes government spending on agricultural programs that are not included in the protection measures.

A profile of trade protection in Egypt: an effective rate of protection approach adjusting for energy subsidies and non-tariff barriers

This study examines effective rates of protection (ERPs) in Egypt due to tariffs, non-tariff barriers (NTBs), and energy subsidies, and compares them with those of a decade ago. Two sources of cost-share information at different levels of aggregation are used: data on specific industries (four-digit ISIC code, 20 in the private and 17 in the public sector), and data on the inter-industry intermediate input costs from the latest available input–output matrix (2006/2007) with 23 aggregated sectors. Trade liberalization since late-1990s appears to have reduced protection, although some industries remain relatively highly protected due to tariff escalation, NTBs, and energy subsidies. Energy subsidies favor energy intensive sectors, of particular note the electricity sector. Energy subsidies also offset the dis-protection that results from intermediate input tariffs. The cement sector is notable, energy subsidies almost exactly offsetting the negative impacts of tariffs and indirect taxes. The fertilizer sector has zero nominal tariffs (benefiting agriculture) and so has a negative ERP due simply to tariffs on inputs; nevertheless, the sector has a high positive ERP due to energy subsidies. ERPs in the private sector have declined notably, and nominal rates of protection have declined generally. ERP dispersion across industries also fell over the decade, but there remains an unexpectedly high dispersion relative to that suggested by applied tariffs only due to the unequal impact of subsidies. Estimated tariff equivalents of NTBs are also highly dispersed.