Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices
Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices

Author: David Coady, Paul Dorosh, and Bart Minten

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Higher world food prices have led many developing countries to adopt policies to mitigate the impact on low-income households. This article sets out a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the efficiency, distributional, and revenue implications of alternative policy responses. The model is applied to evaluate tariff reductions and targeted transfers in Madagascar. Although lowering tariffs generates substantial efficiency gains, these accrue mainly to the top half of the welfare distribution, and poor net sellers are actually worse off. Developing a system of targeted direct transfers to poor households is likely to be a substantially more cost-effective approach to poverty alleviation.

Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices
Evaluating Alternative Policy Responses to Higher World Food Prices

Author: David P. Coady

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Higher world food prices have led many developing countries to adopt policies to mitigate the impact on low-income households. This article sets out a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the efficiency, distributional, and revenue implications of alternative policy responses. The model is applied to evaluate tariff reductions and targeted transfers in Madagascar. Although lowering tariffs generates substantial efficiency gains, these accrue mainly to the top half of the welfare distribution, and poor net sellers are actually worse off. Developing a system of targeted direct transfers to poor households is likely to be a substantially more cost-effective approach to poverty alleviation.

Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy
Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy

Author: Matthias Kalkuhl

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 3319282018

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides fresh insights into concepts, methods and new research findings on the causes of excessive food price volatility. It also discusses the implications for food security and policy responses to mitigate excessive volatility. The approaches applied by the contributors range from on-the-ground surveys, to panel econometrics and innovative high-frequency time series analysis as well as computational economics methods. It offers policy analysts and decision-makers guidance on dealing with extreme volatility.

Recent food prices movements
Recent food prices movements

Author: Bryce Cooke

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published:

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From 2006 to mid-2008 the international prices of agricultural commodities increased considerably, by a factor larger than two. This upward trend in agricultural prices captured the world's attention as a new food crisis was emerging. Several explanations for these movements in prices, ranging from demand-driven forces to supply shocks, have been provided by analysts, researchers, and development institutions. This paper is an attempt to empirically validate these explanations using time series econometrics and data at monthly frequency. We focus on the international price of corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans. First, we identify variables associated with the factors mentioned as causing the increase in these agricultural commodities prices. Second, we use time series analysis to try to quantitatively validate those explanations. The empirical work presented here includes first difference models and rolling Granger causality tests. Overall, our empirical analysis mainly provides evidence that financial activity in futures markets and proxies for speculation can help explain the observed change in food prices; any other explanation is not well supported by our time series analysis.

The Economics of Food Price Volatility
The Economics of Food Price Volatility

Author: Jean-Paul Chavas

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2014-10-14

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 022612892X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"The conference was organized by the three editors of this book and took place on August 15-16, 2012 in Seattle."--Preface.

Inequality and Fiscal Policy
Inequality and Fiscal Policy

Author: Mr.Benedict J. Clements

Publisher: International Monetary Fund

Published: 2015-09-21

Total Pages: 721

ISBN-13: 1513509993

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The sizeable increase in income inequality experienced in advanced economies and many parts of the world since the 1990s and the severe consequences of the global economic and financial crisis have brought distributional issues to the top of the policy agenda. The challenge for many governments is to address concerns over rising inequality while simultaneously promoting economic efficiency and more robust economic growth. The book delves into this discussion by analyzing fiscal policy and its link with inequality. Fiscal policy is the government’s most powerful tool for addressing inequality. It affects households ‘consumption directly (through taxes and transfers) and indirectly (via incentives for work and production and the provision of public goods and individual services such as education and health). An important message of the book is that growth and equity are not necessarily at odds; with the appropriate mix of policy instruments and careful policy design, countries can in many cases achieve better distributional outcomes and improve economic efficiency. Country studies (on the Netherlands, China, India, Republic of Congo, and Brazil) demonstrate the diversity of challenges across countries and their differing capacity to use fiscal policy for redistribution. The analysis presented in the book builds on and extends work done at the IMF, and also includes contributions from leading academics.