Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - DFG research unit SiAg 2007-2010

DFG research unit SiAg 2007-2010

Structural Change in Agriculture

The Objective of the Research Group

Agricultural sectors in developed countries undergo a far-reaching structural change which is driven by technological change, globalisation, new societal demands, and a paradigm shift of the agricultural policy. The objective of the research unit is the integrative economic analysis of these adjustment processes. Already existing theoretical and methodological approaches for the analysis of the transformation process in the agricultural sector should be supplemented, further developed and consolidated. The result is a closer view regarding the agricultural structure change. The outcome is an enhanced picture and a better identification of causalities between exogenous factors, political instruments and corporate decision making. And it is an essential precondition to predict and to govern structural change in terms of social objectives.

Examples of unsolved research questions are:

  • How can the persistence of farm structures overtime and the design of organisational structures within a value added chain be explained, and which relevance inhere political and institutional factors in that course?
  • Which consequences emerge from a new orientation of agricultural politics towards policies for rural areas and their sectoral adjustment processes?
  • Which perspectives do the production of renewable energies offer the agricultural sector?

An important feature of the research project is the joint application of various quantitative methods, amongst others partial and general equilibrium models, multi-agent-models, and econometric models. The linkage of these approaches facilitates the analysis and the evaluation of complex policy scenarios.

Project Structure



Farm level



SP 1
Experiments on entrepreneurial decision making
Schade

SP 2
Relevance of finance and capital markets for farm investments
Odening



Intermediate level



SP 5
Models of  farm-level structural change
Balmann / Mußhoff

SP 6
Assessing the impacts of the WTO negotiation on the global, national and farm level
Brockmeier / Offermann



Policy- & Sector level

SP 7
Effects of EU agricultural market liberalization and direct payments on factor use and income distribution
Grethe / v. Witzke
SP 8
Economic
consequences of the promotion of renewable energy to the agricultural structural change
Kemfert
SP 9
Economic impact analysis of rural development policies
Petrick
SP 10
Interactive programming approaches for design of structural and rural development policies
Kirschke
SP 11
Cooperative and hierarchical forms of  institutional
change
Hagedorn / Beckmann