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Abstract
Federal subsidies for nonprice export promotion of farm products have been criticized on the
grounds that they merely substitute taxpayer dollars for private promotional expenditures. This
‘‘displacement hypothesis’’ is tested by estimating export demand and advertising–goodwill relations
using time series data for 1975–2008. The displacement hypothesis receives some support
in that three of the nine tests show an inverse relationship between industry and government
expenditures. However, the remaining tests show no relationship. These results, coupled with the
finding of Kinnucan and Cai (2011) that expenditures for export promotion may be too high when
consumer impacts are taken into account, suggest it is time to let the Market Access and Foreign
Market Development programs operated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture lapse.