Mexican Agriculture in the Free Trade Agreement

Should Mexican agriculture be liberalized? If so, how fast should this be done, and what policies should accompany the transition? We use Mexican agriculture as a case study to analyze the transition problems that arise in most major economic reforms. We focus on the implications for policy design of the absence of efficient capital markets; on the welfare costs of reforming only gradually; on incentive problems created by trade adjustment policies; and on the redistributive aspects of policy reform in the presence of realistic limits on available policy instruments. Our key point is that adjustment should focus on increasing the value of the assets owned by the groups affected, and not on direct income transfers or programs targeted on output or other characteristics controlled by the beneficiaries. We target adjustment on what people have, as opposed to what people do ...