Some Economics of Public Statistics

Abstract

Public statistics are an important part of the information needed for efficient and effective agricultural and rural policy. Experience of several decades of work at the interface of statistics and policy, in particular on income measurement in agriculture, suggests that there are systematic failures in the process by which statistics are fed into policy decisions, although their nature and extent can be expected to vary across types of policy. These failures include poor recognition of the need for information and conceptual obsolescence in methodologies. The explanations for these failures are likely to include the unwillingness of policy-makers to articulate their objectives clearly, various interests in not having better statistics, the limited independence of agricultural statisticians from departments responsible for policy, and the low level of engagement by academics. Ways of improving the situation are explored. Copyright (c) The Agricultural Economics Society. 2008.

Semi-Subsistence Farming: An Elusive Concept Posing Thorny Policy Questions

“…The evidence base for such decisions should include a proper annual collection of farm, locational and household data, which would allow analysis of their resource base, the quality of factors of production and the developments over time. Hill (2008) emphasised that effective and efficient agricultural policy requires an information flow from public statistics; and moreover the unit of measurement, particularly regarding incomes, should be the farm household. Two options could be considered in this direction.…”

The Common Agricultural Policy and Its Reform: The Problem of Reconciling Budget and Trade Concerns

“…Moreover, the dearth of studies in this area is mirrored by a lack of detailed statistics on the incomes of farming households, including incomes earned either off‐farm or from non‐farming activities. Hill (2008, pp. 14–17) offers several arguments why such data, seemingly central to the CAP in the light of Article 33, might be lacking.…”

“…It can be argued, from the foregoing, that this openness is only possible with the shift to direct payments. Such data will, as Hill (2008) argues over farm incomes, doubtless fuel debate over a policy that sees some receive millions of euro each year. That said, the value of such transfers should not be confused with the final impact on farm incomes.…”

The CAP and its Reform – Half a Century of Change? Die GAP und ihre Reform – 50 Jahre im Wandel? La PAC et sa réforme – Un demi‐siècle de changement?

“…The observation was made above regarding the centrality to the CAP of financial transfers seeking to achieve the Treaty objective of a 'fair standard of living for…persons engaged in agriculture'. Despite this, there is such a lack of adequate data on farm and off-farm incomes that 'it is not possible to describe and monitor the incomes of farmers and their families, to show how many of them receive low incomes that may place them in poverty, and to distinguish between those that…temporarily have low or negative incomes and the smaller core where the situation is endemic' (Hill, 2008: 12).…”