Food Price Changes, Domestic Price Insulation, and Poverty (When All Policy Makers Want to be Above Average)

Kym Anderson, William Martin, Maros Ivanic

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

    Abstract

    This chapter reviews some of the findings from earlier work by looking at the way in which governments intervene to reduce the volatility of domestic food prices. It shows that the type of insulation both is widespread and takes the form of seeking to insulate domestic markets from short-term price changes while passing through longer-term changes in world prices. The chapter examines what implications the reaction might have for poor households, taking into account what people have learned about the impacts of food price changes on poverty. It focuses on the implications of temporary price insulation for domestic and international prices in the short run, seeking to clarify some concepts that may not have been brought out sufficiently clearly in author work. The chapter shows that the widespread practice of price insulation can stabilize domestic prices in countries that insulate to a greater than average degree; it destabilizes domestic prices in those countries that insulate less than the average.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAgriculture and Rural Development in a Globalizing World: Challenges and Opportunities
    Editors Prabhu Pingali and Gershon Feder
    Place of PublicationLondon
    PublisherRoutledge, London
    Pages181-92
    Edition1st edition
    ISBN (Print)9781138231825
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

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