Title: Agricultural development in the age of trade liberalisation: what did we really get? A case study of Jordan

Authors: Fayq Al Akayleh

Addresses: College of Business Administration, Al Yamamah University, P.O. Box 45180, Riyadh 11512, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This paper analyses trade liberalisation policies and the impact of economic openness on agricultural development in a small, open economy. The paper reports on the effect of these policies on the following economic variables: 1) agricultural production; 2) income from agriculture; 3) domestic availability and security of food; 4) competitive advantage in agricultural products; 5) investment in agriculture; 6) agricultural employment. The second aspect of this work was the construction of an index of real exchange rates of Jordanian agricultural exports for a 33-year span as such an index was not available from the country's databases. The study relates to a small and newly open economy, namely the Jordanian economy for the period 1970-2003. The result of this study shows the deterioration of the agriculture sector during the period of trade liberalisation policies and the newly implemented economic reform programmes as compared to the pre-reform period.

Keywords: agriculture; trade policy; economic liberalisation; food security; Jordan; economic development; employment; investment; agricultural development; trade liberalisation; agricultural exports; economic reform.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2013.052484

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2013 Vol.5 No.3, pp.286 - 301

Published online: 30 Dec 2013 *

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