The Political Economy of Honey Subsidies

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Honey subsidies are pretty well explained by the concentration of benefits in a small number of producers and the diffuse nature of costs. If you aggregate all those nickels that turns into $20,000 per beekeeper is that a rough measure of what size of the subsidy was? I'd have to go back and look at what we've written because it's been actually a number of years since I've looked at that but yes we'll put a link up to it and people can go find it for themselves if they're really worried about it or curious are the subsidy still in place?

Wally Thurman of North Carolina State University and PERC talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the world of bees, beekeepers, and the market for pollination. Thurman describes how farmers hire beekeepers to pollinate their crops and how that market keeps improving crop yields and producing honey. Thurman then discusses how beekeepers have responded to Colony Collapse Disorder--a not fully understood phenomenon where colonies disband, dramatically reducing the number of bees. The discussion closes with the history of bee pollination as an example of a reciprocal externality and how Coase's insight helps understand how the pollination market works.