How can randomised controlled trials help improve the design of the common agricultural policy?

Luc Behaghel (1, 2) , Karen Macours (1, 2) , Julie Subervie (3)

1 PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques
2 PSE - Paris School of Economics
3 CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - FRE2010

We illustrate how randomised controlled trials (RCTs) could be used to evaluate the impact of alternative designs of the common agricultural policy (CAP). We select four policy-design issues which relate to different components of the CAP and raise a wide range of economic questions: nudges, coordination failures, equity-efficiency trade-offs, contract design. Based on examples from agricultural and social policies in developing and developed countries, we show that RCTs have provided useful rigorous evidence on similar design issues, suggesting that they could also be leveraged to help improve components of the CAP.

Mots clés: Policy design; Field experiments; Common agricultural policy; Impact evaluation

Domaines: Economies et finances

Luc Behaghel, Karen Macours, Julie Subervie. How can randomised controlled trials help improve the design of the common agricultural policy?. European Review of Agricultural Economics, 2019, 46 (3), pp.473-493. ⟨10.1093/erae/jbz021⟩. ⟨halshs-02297689⟩