FOR 986:  Structural Change in Agriculture

• Subject Area: Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine
• Term: from 2007 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 53162462

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:
(1) 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?
(2) Which consequences emerge from a new orientation of agricultural politics towards policies for rural areas and their sectoral adjustment processes?
(3) Which perspectives do the production of renewable energies offer the agricultural sector?
An important feature of the Research Unit 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.
Thus, a new generation of analysis instruments should be available for the study of complex social change processes after conclusion of the work of this Research Unit. According to the basic adjustment of the research project methodical-theoretical realisations form an emphasis to the structural change. Furthermore, answers to current agricultural and environmental questions are aimed at. Addresses of the results besides the scientific community are therefore also decision makers in agricultural policy and Agribusiness.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Agricultural Entrepreneurs' Decision Making and Structural Change: An Experimental Approach (Applicant Schade, Christian D. )
• Between Path Dependence and Path Creation: The Impact of Farmers' Behavior and Policies on Structural Change in Agriculture (Applicant Balmann, Alfons )
• Econometric evaluation of CAP impacts in Germany (Applicant Petrick, Martin )
• Energy from biomass:Linkages between the agricultural and the energy sector in the EU. (Applicant Grethe, Harald )
• How should Model Linkages be designed to analyze the Effects of Global Agricultural Trade Liberalization at the Farm Level? (Applicants Brockmeier, Martina ;  Offermann, Frank )
• Interaktive Programmierungsansätze für die Gestaltung von Strukturpolitiken und Politiken für den ländlichen Raum (Applicant Kirschke, Dieter )
• Kooperative und hierarchische Erscheinungsformen institutionellen Wandels (Applicant Hagedorn, Konrad )
• Market Structure and Organization in Agri-Food Value Chains: An Application to the German Dairy Sector (Applicant Hockmann, Heinrich )
• Modeling farm level structural change in a dynamic competitive environment (Applicant Mußhoff, Oliver )
• Structural Change and Dynamic Efficiency of German Dairy Farms (Applicant Odening, Martin )
• Wirtschaftliche Konsequenzen der Förderung erneuerbarer Energien für den Agrarstrukturwandel (Applicant Kemfert, Claudia )
• Zentralprojekt (Applicant Odening, Martin )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Martin Odening