Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T03:51:05.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Democracy, Trade Openness, and Agricultural Trade Policy in Southeast Asian Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2014

THANAPAN LAIPRAKOBSUP*
Affiliation:
National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailandtlaiprakobsup@hotmail.com

Abstract

This paper examines the relation between trade, political openness, and agricultural trade policy in developing countries. It argues that trade openness and democracy contribute to lower taxes and control programs in the agricultural sectors. Examining the politics of agricultural trade policy in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand, it was found that trade expansion and democratic regimes lead to fewer taxes and control programs imposed on agriculture. The results indicate that elected governments in industrializing countries are less likely to impose more tax and control programs on agriculture in order to encourage exports and in order to appeal to farmers, who are a major voting bloc in these countries.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, Daron and Robinson, James A. (2006), Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kym (2009), ‘Five Decades of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives’, in Anderson, Kym (ed.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955–2007, Washington, DC: Palgrave Macmillan and World Bank, pp. 364.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kym (ed.) (2009), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives: A Global Perspective, 1955–2007, Washington, DC: Palgrave Macmillan and World Bank.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kym and Nelgen, Signe (2012), ‘Updated National and Global Estimates of Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, 1955 to 2010’, available from World Bank, web site, www.worldbank.org/agdistortions.Google Scholar
Anderson, Kym and Martin, Will (eds.) (2009), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington, DC: World Bank.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kym and Hayami, Yujiro (1986), The Political Economy of Agricultural Protection: East Asia in International Perspective, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Bates, Robert H. (1981), Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural policies, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Beck, Nathaniel and Katz, Jonathan N. (1995), ‘What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series Cross-Section Data’, American Political Science Review, 89 (3): 634–47.Google Scholar
Bello, Walden (2009), The Food Wars, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Binswanger, Hans P. and Deininger, Klaus (1997), ‘Explaining Agricultural and Agrarian Policies in Developing Countries’, Journal of Economic Literature, 35 (4): 19582005.Google Scholar
Boix, Carles (2003), Democracy and Redistribution, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
David, Christina, Intal, Ponciano, and Balisacan, Arsenio M. (2009), ‘The Philippines’, in Anderson, Kym and Martin, Will (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington, DC: World Bank, pp. 223–54.Google Scholar
Driscoll, John C. and Kraay, Aart C. (1998), ‘Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimation with Spatially Dependent Panel Data’, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 80 (4): 549–60.Google Scholar
Fane, George and Warr, Peter (2009), ‘Indonesia’, in Anderson, Kym and Martin, Will (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington, DC: World Bank, pp. 165–96.Google Scholar
Giavazzi, Francesco and Tabellini, Guido (2005), ‘Economic and Political Liberalization’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 52: 1297–330.Google Scholar
Granato, Jim (1991), ‘An Agenda for Econometric Model Building’, Political Analysis, 3 (1): 123–54.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephen (1990), Pathways from the Periphery: The Politics of Growth in the Newly Industrializing Countries, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Henry, David and Mizon, Grayham (1978), ‘Serial Correlation as a Convenient Simplification, Not a Nuisance: A Common on a Study of the Demand for Money by the Bank of England’, Economic Journal, 88 (351): 549–63.Google Scholar
Heston, Alan, Summers, Robert, and Aten, Bettina (2009), ‘Penn World Table (version 7.0)’ (data file), available from the Center for International Comparisons for Production, Income, and Prices at the University of Pennsylvania, web site: http://pwt.econ.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt_index.php.Google Scholar
Hoechle, Daniel (2007), ‘Robust Standard Errors for Panel Regressions with Cross-Sectional Dependence’, The Stata Journal, 7 (3): 281312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasara, Kimuli (2007), ‘Tax Me if You Can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa’, American Political Science Review, 101 (1): 159–72.Google Scholar
Krueger, Anne O. (1991), The Political Economy of Agricultural Pricing Policy: The Synthesis, Baltimore, MD: World Bank.Google Scholar
Laiprakobsup, Thanapan (2010), ‘Political Regime, Business Coordination, Unity of Rural Farmers, and Agricultural Politics in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Thailand’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Houston, Houston, TX.Google Scholar
Lal, Deepak (1985), The Poverty of Developmental Economics, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lin, Justin Yifu (2009), Economic Development and Transition: Thought, Strategy, and Viability, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lopes, Mauro de Rezende, Lopes, Ignez Vidigal, de Oliveira, Marilene Silva, Barcelos, Fabio Campos, Jara, Esteban, and Bogado, Pedro Rangel (2008), ‘Brazil’, in Anderson, Kym and Valdes, Alberto (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Latin America, Washington, DC: World Bank, pp. 87118.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G. and Jagger, Keith (2009), ‘Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2007 (Dataset users’ manual)’, available from the Center for Systemic Peace web site, http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/p4manualv2009.pdf.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., Jagger, Keith and Gurr, Ted Robert (2009), Polity IV: Regime Authority Characteristics and Transition Datasets, 1800–2010 (data file), available from the Center for Systemic Peace web site, http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/inscr.htm.Google Scholar
Meltzer, Allan H. and Richards, Scott F. (1981), ‘A Rational Theory of the Size of Government’, Journal of Political Economy, 89 (5): 914–27.Google Scholar
O’ Donnell, Guillermo and Schmitter, Phillipe C. (1986), Transition from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies, Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Olper, Alessandro, Falkowski, Jan, and Swinnen, Jo (2009), ‘Political Reforms and Public Policies’, LICOS Discussion Paper 251/2009, LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, KU Leuven.Google Scholar
Olper, Alessandro and Raimondi, Valentino (2013), ‘Electoral Rules, Form of Government and Redistributive Policy: Evidence from Agriculture and Food Policies’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 41: 141–58.Google Scholar
Rogowski, Ronald (1989), Commerce and Coalitions: How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Siamwalla, Ammar and Setboonsarng, Suthad (1991), ‘Thailand’, in Krueger, Anne O., Schiff, Maurice, and Valdes, Alberto (eds.), The Political Economy of Agricultural Pricing Policy: Volume 2, Asia (2nd edn), Baltimore, MD: World Bank and John Hopkins University, pp. 236–80.Google Scholar
Swinnen, Johan F.M. (1994), ‘A Positive Theory of Agricultural Protection’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 76: 114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varshney, Ashutosh (1995), Democracy, Development, and the Countryside: Urban–Rural Struggles in India, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warr, Peter and Achanon, Kohpaiboon (2009), ‘Thailand’, in Anderson, Kym and Martin, Will (eds.), Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Asia, Washington, DC: World Bank, pp. 255–80.Google Scholar
Weyland, Kurt G. (2004), The Politics of Market Reform in Fragile Democracies: Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Sven. E. and Butler, Daniel M. (2007), ‘A Lot More to Do: The Sensitivity of Time-Series Cross-Section Analyses to Simple Alternative Specifications’, Political Analysis, 15 (2): 101–23.Google Scholar
Yergin, Daniel and Stanislaw, Joseph (2002), The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy, New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
World Bank (2012), World Bank Data, available from the World Bank web site, http://data.worldbank.org/.Google Scholar