The political economy of public research investment and commodity policies in agriculture: an empirical study
利用37国数据，检验了政府同时决定农业商品政策（收入再分配）和公共农业研究投资的政治经济学理论，发现经济结构变化对政府决策有非线性影响，且民主程度不必然导致更多扭曲性转移或更少公共品投资。
The paper tests a political economy theory of simultaneous government decision-making on income redistribution through commodity policies and on public research investment in agriculture. We use data from 37 countries on agricultural protection and public agricultural research expenditures (PARI). The empirical results are consistent with the political economy hypotheses. The analysis suggest that structural changes in the economy have important effects on the political incentives for governments not only to subsidize or tax farmers, but also to invest in public agricultural research. Furthermore, the analysis supports the hypotheses that the impact of such structural changes on government decision-making on PARI is non-linear and conditional on other factors. Regarding the impact of political institutions, the results suggest that more democracy neither leads to more distortionary transfers (agricultural protection), nor to lower investment in public goods (PARI). ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.