Should Global Agriculture be Liberalized? : Theories, Models and Realities

According to standard economic theory and modelling, liberalizing agriculture will result in important welfare gains. Because of price volatility, an alternative model, based in general disequilibrium in the Wicksellian tradition, provides much less optimistic conclusions, actually supported by the recent evolution of the world agricultural system, as well as by the history of the many attempts of agricultural trade liberalization since the 18th century.