Pachtprijsbeheersing en landbouwprijsbeleid in Nederland

Since 1938 there has been a policy of rent arbitration in the Netherlands. Rent arbitration appeared to be necessary through the price policy of agricultural products. The purpose was to divide agricultural income fairly between farmers and the landowners. The author argued that rent arbitration should also be treated as an instrument and not only a consequence of agricultural price policy. By giving guaranteed prices to the farmers the government influenced on the land rent, but the land rent resulting from arbitration should also influence the guaranteed prices for agricultural products.The thesis provides a detailed description and analysis of the methods of rent arbitration, and some suggestions for improving the methods. Rent arbitration had had an important influence: before rent arbitration came into force, total net rent was about 25 % of agricultural income, whereas it is now only 5 %. It was argued, however, that other influences were also at work; without rent arbitration that percentage could have decreased also.