FACULTY DIRECTORY
Harry de Gorter
Professor
Areas of Expertise
Agriculture and Trade Policy, Applied Welfare Economics,
Political Economy
Contact Information
331 Warren Hall • Phone: 607.255.8076
E-mail: hd15@cornell.edu
Harry de Gorter teaches and conducts research on the applied welfare economics and political economy of agricultural trade policy. Much of his recent work has been on biofuels and agricultural trade reform and the Doha Development Agenda, especially the impact of subsidies and protection on developing countries. His research is both theoretical and empirical with direct policy implications for governments, international institutions, and non-governmental organizations.
Prior to Cornell, he worked for the International Trade Policy Division of the Canadian Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. He has long been actively involved in advising many governments and international organizations on issues related to agriculture trade policy including the EU, FAO, G-20, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, World Bank, and WTO.
Harry de Gorter has published over 90 articles and book chapters, including in the International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, Handbook of Economics, and Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy. Books with his chapter in it have twice won the AAEA’s Quality of Communication Award, and he has won the Best Article Award in the Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
Recent research focuses on the economics of biofuel policies, WTO disciplines on agriculture, alternative agricultural import barriers, domestic subsidy programs and export subsidies, implication of preferential tariffs and quotas for least developed countries, the economics of WTO trade disputes, and the impact of trade liberalization. Recent papers include the welfare economics of biofuel policies, effects of liberalizing tariff rate import quotas and administration methods, the economics of decoupled payments, the effects of EU and U.S. farm policy, how state trading enterprises subsidize exports and limit imports, and the interaction between the environment, technological change, and trade. His research in the area of political economy includes the politics of trade negotiations and rent seeking, the factors affecting price policy bias in world agriculture, and the interaction between commodity policy and public goods in agriculture.
Since early 2007, he has embarked on a massive research program on the social costs and benefits of biofuel policies, including implications for the environment. Professor de Gorter has since had five journal articles on biofuels at least provisionally accepted, along with two book chapters and has given 16 presentations (including two plenary sessions) to various conferences and organizations. He is a leading expert on the policy economics of biofuels, has been involved with the Doha negotiations and WTO trade disputes concerning biofuel policies, and is currently advising the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Bank on the social costs and benefits of alternative biofuel policies.
Education
B.Sc., University of Guelph, 1975
M.Sc., University of Guelph, 1977
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 1983
Teaching
AEM 4350: The Political Economy of the WTO and Globalization
AEM 6300: Policy Analysis: Welfare Theory, Agriculture and Trade
AEM 7020: Applied Welfare Economics (AEM Ph.D. core course, 5 weeks or 1/3 of the class)
BEE 4940 (AEM 6940): Biofuels: The Economic and Environmental Interactions (1 week on "The Social Costs and Benefits of Biofuel Policies and Import Tariffs”)
Selected Publications
de Gorter, H. Welfare Economics. 2009. Forthcoming in21st Century Economics: A Reference Handbook, Sage Publishing Company.
de Gorter, H., and D. R. Just. 2008. ’Water’ in the U.S. Ethanol Tax Credit and Mandate: Implications for Rectangular Deadweight Costs and the Corn-Oil Price Relationship. Forthcoming in Review of Agricultural Economics. Paper link
de Gorter, Harry, and D. R. Just. 2008. The Welfare Economics of a Biofuel Tax Credit and the Interaction Effects with Price Contingent Farm Subsidies. Forthcoming in American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Paper link
de Gorter, H. 2008. The Economics of Tariff Rate Import Quotas. Forthcoming in the Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy.
de Gorter, H., and D. R. Just. 2008. The Welfare Economics of Binding Mandates with Trade. Forthcoming chapter in Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy. Madhu Khanna, Jurgen Scheffran, and David Zilberman (editors). Springer-Verlag.
de Gorter, H., and D. R. Just. 2007. The Law of Unintended Consequences: How the U.S. Biofuel Tax Credit with a Mandate Subsidizes Oil Consumption and Has No Impact on Ethanol Consumption, Charles H. Dyson School of Charles H. Dyson School, Working Paper 2007-20. Paper link
de Gorter, H., and D. R. Just. 2007. The Economics of U.S. Ethanol Import Tariffs with a Consumption Mandate and Tax Credit, Charles H. Dyson School of Charles H. Dyson School, Working Paper 2007-21. Paper link
de Gorter, H., D. R. Just, and J. D. Kropp. 2008. Cross-subsidization Due to Infra-Marginal Support in Agriculture: A General Theory and Empirical Evidence. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Hranaiova, J., and H. de Gorter. 2006. State Trading and Tariff Rate Import Quotas: The Case of Korea’s Rice Imports. Review of Development Economics.
Hranaiova, J., H. de Gorter, and J. Falk. 2006. The Economics of Administering Import Quotas with Licenses-on-Demand in Agriculture. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter, H., and E. Kliauga. 2005. Reducing Tariffs versus Expanding Tariff Rate Quotas. In Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda, edited by K. Anderson and W. Martin. Palgrave Macmillan and the World Bank.
de Gorter, H. 2005. Export Subsidies: Agricultural Policy Reform and Developing Countries. In Trade, Doha and Development: A Window into the Issues, edited by R. Newfarmer. The World Bank.
Chau, N., and H. de Gorter. 2005. Disentangling the Consequences of Direct Payments in Agriculture on Fixed Costs, Exit Decisions and Output. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Anderson, K., H. de Gorter, and W. Martin. 2005. Market Access Barriers in Agriculture and Options for Reform. In Trade, Doha and Development: A Window into the Issues, edited by R. Newfarmer. The World Bank.
Hranaiova, J., and H. de Gorter. 2005. Rent Seeking with Politically Contestable Rights to Import Quotas. Review of International Economic
de Gorter, H., and C. Short. 2004. The Distributional Effects of Alternative Domestic and Trade Policy Reforms for Field Crops in OECD Countries. In Agriculture and the WTO: Creating a Trading System for Development, edited by M. Ingco and J. Nash. The Oxford University Press.
Baffes, J., and H. de Gorter. 2004. The Experience with Decoupling Agricultural Support. In Global Protection and Trade in Agriculture, edited by A. Aksoy and J. Beghin. The Oxford University Press.
de Gorter, H. 2004. Market Access, Export Subsidies and Domestic Support Measures: Issues and Suggestions for New Rules in the Agreement on Agriculture. In Agriculture and the NewTrade Agenda: Creating a Global Trading Environment for Development, edited by M. Ingco and A. Winters. Cambridge University Press.
de Gorter, H., and J. Hranaiova. 2004. Quota Administration Methods: Economics and Effects with Trade Liberalization. In Agriculture and the WTO: Creating a Trading System for Development, edited by M. Ingco and J. Nash. The Oxford University Press.
Pokrivcák, J., H. de Gorter, and J. Swinnen. 2003. The Political Economy of European Integration. Journal of Economics.
Peterson, J., R. Boisvert, and H. de Gorter. 2002. Environmental Policies for a Multifunctional Agricultural Sector in Open Economies. European Review of Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter, H., and J. Liu. 2002. Managing tariff quotas for grains in China: possible effects on imports and domestic prices. InChina in the Global Economy: Agricultural Policies in China after WTO Accession. OECD, Paris.
Swinnen J., and H. de Gorter. 2002. On Government Credibility, Compensation, and Underinvestment in Public Research. European Review of Agricultural Economics.
Banerjee, A., J. Swinnen, and H. de Gorter. 2001. Economic Development, Institutional Change, and the Political Economy of Agricultural Protection. Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter, H., G. Rausser, and A. Schmitz. 2001. Rent Seeking and International Trade in Agriculture. In Agricultural Globalization, Trade and the Environment, edited by A. Schmitz. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Schluep, I., and H. de Gorter. 2000. The Law and Economics of 'Consumer only' Financed Export Subsidies–A Context for the WTO's Dispute Settlement Panel on Canadian Dairy Policy. Agrarwirtschaft und Agrarsoziologie.
de Gorter, H., and I. Sheldon. 2000. Issues in the Administration of Tariff-Rate Import Quotas in the Agreement on Agriculture in the WTO. Agricultural and Resource Economic Review.
de Gorter, H., and J. Pokrivcák. 2000. The Politics of Central and Eastern Europe Joining the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy. In Agriculture and East-West Integration, edited by J. Swinnen. Avebury Press.
Swinnen, J., and H. de Gorter. 1998. Endogenous Commodity Policy and the Social Benefits from Public Research Expenditures. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter H., and J. Swinnen. 1998. The Impact of Economic Development on Redistributive and Public Research Policies in Agriculture. Review of Development Economics.
de Gorter, H., and J. Swinnen. 1994. The Economic Polity of Farm Policy. Journal of Agricultural Economics.
Swinnen, J., and H. de Gorter. 1993. Why Small Groups and Low Income Sectors Obtain Subsidies: The Altruistic Side of a Self-Interested Government. Economics and Politics.
de Gorter, H., and E. Fisher. 1993. The Dynamic Effects of Agricultural Subsidy Programs in the United States. Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
de Gorter, H., D. Nielson and G. Rausser. 1992. Productive and Predatory Public Policies: Research Expenditures and Producer Subsidies in Agriculture. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter, H. 1992. Agricultural Policies and the GATT: A Rawlsian Perspective. In Mechanisms to Improve Agricultural Trade Performance Under the GATT, edited by T. Becker, R. Gray, and A. Schmitz. Wissenschaftsverlag Vauk.
de Gorter, H., and Y. Tsur. 1991. Explaining Price Policy Bias in Agriculture: The Calculus of Support Maximizing Politicians. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.
de Gorter, H., and D. Zilberman. 1990. On the Political Economy of Public Good Inputs in Agriculture. American Journal of Agricultural Economics.