Policy dependency and reform: economic gains versus political pains
重新审视农业政策演变及其成本收益评估，指出经济分析常忽视政策演化中的路径依赖，导致改革缓慢且效果不佳。作者试图用更符合直觉的表述重构传统经济论点，以增强对政策制定者的说服力，并探讨经济效率与政治可接受性之间的冲突。
Abstract Economic analysis condemns market intervention in favour of farmers as inefficient and ineffective, and therefore worthy of radical reform. Practical experience, however, indicates that such lessons are hard to learn and implement. Economic analysis tends to ignore the path dependencies generated by the policy evolution process. Without reform strategies that take full account of these dependencies, policy reform will continue to be reluctant, slow and frequently counter‐productive. This paper reconsiders the evolution of farm policies and the economic assessment of their costs and benefits. In so doing, it re‐phrases conventional economic arguments in terms which seem to accord better with sensible intuition, which may prove more accessible and credible to policymakers and advisors. The difficulties of reconciling economic efficiency with political acceptability are identified. The paper concludes with a substantial challenge to the agricultural economics profession.