Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Research article2019Peer reviewedOpen access

The Local Impacts of Agricultural Subsidies: Evidence from the Canadian Prairies

Bollman, Ray D.; Ferguson, Shon M.

Abstract

We estimate the impact of removing an export subsidy on the local economies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, exploiting the large regional variation of a 1995 reform. We find that the loss of the subsidy resulted in significantly lower farm value-added, farm asset values and local non-farm employment. The results suggest that the subsidy removal had detrimental spillover effects on the local non-agricultural economy that varied spatially across the Prairies. The point estimates suggest that the marginal effect of the subsidy loss on non-agricultural employment was five times as large as those obtained from traditional estimates of the multiplier effect.

Keywords

Agricultural trade liberalisation; export subsidy; local labour markets; market access; spillovers

Published in

Journal of Agricultural Economics
2019, Volume: 70, number: 2, pages: 507-528

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Business Administration

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12309

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/101559