Food insecurity is a much more serious concern in India than China. In addition to income and poverty differences, we argue in this paper that differences in food policies can further explain the different food security outcomes across the two countries. First, India mostly uses price-based input subsidies to support agricultural incentives whereas China has recently adopted direct transfers to support agricultural incentives, which are believed to be less distorting and more efficient. Second, the two countries apply quite different approaches to address poor consumers' access to food, with India adopting a widely criticized public distribution system and China mainly using direct income transfers and other social safety nets. Third, although both committed considerable fiscal resources to insulating their respective domestic markets, especially during recent food price spikes, India's heavy dependence on price-based measures causes relatively larger and more volatile fiscal burdens, thereby likely making it more vulnerable in dealing with similar events in the future. These findings have important implications for food policy and food security in the two countries in the future.

A connection exists between enlargement of the European Union and reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Based upon rational choice theory, we examine whether the member states' CAP positions are related to structures in their agricultural sectors. The overall hypothesis is that intensiveness of agricultural production corresponds to the willingness to reform the CAP. Political CAP positions, together with the development of member states' structural fundamentals, are analysed using cluster analysis. The results show that EU enlargements have extensified agricultural production at the EU level, and that extensive agricultural production in a member state is often an indicator of reduced willingness to reform. However, the intensiveness of agricultural production is only part of the explanation. Moreover, negotiation tactics play an important role for the positions on the CAP.

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