Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the occurrence and grade of policy convergence in the agricultural policies of OECD countries. Based on various concepts of policy convergence four social mechanisms can be identified that justify the expectation that convergence of agricultural policies since the mid 1980s has occurred: similar problem pressure due to surpluses and budget problems, pressure toward harmonization through integration of agricultural trade into GATT/WTO, EU enlargement, and transnational communication in the OECD. Two expectations are tested on the base of OECD country data for the years 1986 to 2004: Convergence mechanisms lead to a) decreasing and more similar levels of support for agricultural producers and b) a structural shift in the pattern of support toward less trade distorting measures. Empirical findings support the expected direction of policy convergence (delta convergence). However, agricultural policies of OECD countries have not grown more similar, the data do not confirm the expectation of sigma convergence. Against this background, causes of and conditions favouring enduring international differences in agricultural policies are discussed.