http://hdl.handle.net/10397/2336 Search the Channel search http://repository.lib.polyu.edu.hk/jspui/simple-search http://hdl.handle.net/10397/2338 Title: Understanding China's grain procurement policy from a perspective of optimization<br/><br/>Authors: Shea, Y. P. Esther<br/><br/>Abstract: This paper develops an optimization model to analyze the policy formulation under China'sdual-track grain procurement system. By capturing the redistribution objective and the urban food security objective in a political preference function, we provide some rigorous explanations of three important aspects of China's grain policies: the choice of the dual-track procurement system over the lump-sum tax scheme as a means of extracting economic surpluses from the grain sector; the suppression of the procurement price to its minimum until the mid-1990s; and the switch from taxing to subsidizing grain production at end-1996. Ourfindings underscore the paramount importance of the urban food security objective behind the evolution of China's grain procurement policy, including the liberalization of the system in the 2000s.<br/><br/>Description: DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2010.07.002