Tag Archives: Lobby

Explicit and Implicit Subsidies for Swiss Farmers

In the NZZ, Heidi Gmür discusses some of the many forms of government support for agricultural producers in Switzerland. She lists:

  • Direct payments: CHF 2.8 billion for 53’000 farms in 2016 (roughly CHF 50 thousand per farm).
  • Tariffs and other protectionist measures: According to the OECD, the value for farmers of these measures amounts to CHF 2 billion annually, while the value for the country is negative (CHF -0.5 billion).
  • Multiple tax breaks: Lower capital gains tax on land sales; no value added tax on sale of produce; lower tax on notional rental value; lower effective tax on gas consumption.

Liberal and Conservative Professions and Industries

Andy Kiersz and Hunter Walker report in Businessinsider about a Crowd Pack analysis of US federal campaign contributions.

As far as donors are concerned, the analysis suggests that the media, entertainment and tech industries as well as academics tend to support “liberal” candidates. The same holds true, somewhat less pronounced, for the pharmaceutical industry and lawyers.

In contrast, farmers as well as representatives of the building and construction, mining, oil, gas and coal and tobacco industries mostly support “conservative” candidates. Other industries appear very polarised.