The impact of dairy policy-regulations on structural change, production costs, milk quality and N-excretion: evidence for the Flemish dairy sector

Since 1987, the EU allows dairy quota transfers within member states, but the trading rules differ across member states and in time. In the Flanders case, before 1996, quota transactions happened in a free market with high quota prices, from 1996 to 2004 they have been centrally organised with a fixed lower price. This study uses a Markov chain model to quantify observed quota transactions and the resulting structural development of the Flemish dairy sector. The results show that structural development is higher during the free market period and that this has also an influence on the aggregate... Mehr ...