Agricultural policies and farm structures

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Agricultural structures have been shaped by a variety of factors including economic, cultural, historical, political, technological, and geographical conditions. Moreover, agricultural structures are not static. Structural change can be characterised as an evolutionary process consisting - among other things - of constant adjustment to changes in demand, supply, and technological progress. The development of competitive and efficient agricultural structures has been one of the central goals of agricultural policy making in addition to ensuring a fair standard of living for farmers. To achieve these goals, the agricultural sector in most industrialised nations has long been the subject of government interventions. However, many agricultural policies have worked counteractively to these goals by creating distortions in the use of resources. Against this background, the emergence of new and innovative modelling methods such as agent-based models, in addition to ever-increasing computing capacities has offered new possibilities to model adjustment reactions and to quantify the impact of agricultural policies. This thesis takes up these new methodologies and applies them to the modelling and evaluation of agricultural policy impacts on regional structural change in Baden-Württemberg. The thesis contributes to a deeper understanding of structural change dynamics and factors causing structural change. The starting point of the analysis is the hypothesis that Hohenlohes agricultural structure displays structural inefficiencies and that structural adjustment in the past has been impeded by existing agricultural policies. Based on these assumptions, it is studied whether and to what extent policy changes can facilitate structural adjustment towards a more efficient and competitive agricultural structure