Abstract
We examine the effect of upcoming elections and government ideology on agricultural liberalization in Central and Eastern Europe countries in the post-communist period. Our results suggest first that prices and markets liberalization and land market privatization are manipulated in pre-election periods to secure re-election by favouring farmers. Second, we find no evidence that reforms in the agro-process industry, rural finance or institutional environment are affected by upcoming elections. Third, we demonstrate that right-wing governments protect the interest of the agricultural sector more than left-wing governments by affecting the speed of price and market reforms, privatization in the agro-processing industry and land market privatization. Finally, we demonstrate that liberalization the agricultural sector is partly retarded by nationalistic governments. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 332-346 |
| Journal | Food Policy |
| Volume | 49 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- food policies
- initial conditions
- budget cycles
- panel-data
- reform
- transition
- protection
- countries
- insights
- institutions