ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the major policies that affect rural areas and considers their distributional implications in a somewhat broader framework, in particular to examine: agricultural policy; land development policy; conservation policy; and recreation policy. Recreational policy has encouraged the use of rural areas for recreation and has thereby provided benefits on a large scale for car owners who are mainly of middle-class origin. Gratton and Taylor recognise that there may be a case for subsidising rural recreation to ensure that the less well-off are able to consume outdoor recreation opportunities and derive benefit from the positive externalities it provides up to the level where marginal cost of provision equates with the value of social demand. As a result, questions such as who gains and who loses from particular policies, the way in which different groups in society are able to capture various resources and benefits, the extent to which incomes are equitably distributed, are too often overlooked.
