Markets, Trade and Institutions

MAcMap-HS6v2 is a comprehensive database providing detailed protection data at the 6 digit level of the harmonized system (HS6), i.e. more than 5000 products, for the year 2004. It includes ad valorem equivalents on MFN tariffs for 169 importing ...

The purpose of this study is twofold. On one hand, the objective is to assess the impact of new and more complex contracting schemes, as opposed to traditional marketing channels, on small farmers’ welfare. On the other hand, the study ...

In response to slow growth in the agricultural sector and as part of a general shift towards a more market-oriented economy, the Government of Egypt started liberalizing the agricultural sector in 1987. Controls over wheat production and ...

This paper studies an economy in which the government is not able to perfectly enforce tax compliance among operating firms, and compares it with a similar economy but with perfect tax enforcement. I develop a competitive general equilibrium ...

Indian agriculture is diversifying during the last two decades towards High-Value Commodities (HVCs) i.e., fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, and fish products. The pace has been accelerated during the decade of 1990s. HVCs account for a large share ...

As in many other developing countries, the concerns about food security in Indonesia during the 1980s and early 1990s resulted in policies aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in food crops. The Government of Indonesia (GOI) combined price ...

This study analyzes the evolution of agricultural policies from 1985 to 2002 in India, Indonesia, China, and Vietnam and provides empirical estimates of the degree of protection or disprotection to agriculture in these four countries, both by key ...

This paper addresses the potential effects of a world agricultural trade liberalization scenario on poverty and regional income distribution in Brazil, using an interregional applied general equilibrium (AGE) and microsimulation model of Brazil, ...

This study reports theory-testing laboratory experiments on the effect of yardstick competition on corruption. The results reveal that on the incumbent’s side, yardstick competition acts as a corruption-taming mechanism only if the ...

Angelino C. G. Viceisza obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Georgia State University in December 2007. His fields of interest are game theory and econometrics, specifically applied to questions in experimental and development economics. Angelino ...

Kenyan horticultural exports are often cited as a success story in African agriculture. Fruit and vegetable exports from Côte ‘Ivoire have received less attention, but the export value is similar to that of Kenya. This paper focuses on ...

This paper demonstrates a comprehensive methodology for assessing the viability of an environmental management plan that has long-run economic and ecological impacts. The case study under consideration is the implementation of a water resource ...

This paper is devoted to better understanding of the Brazilian agricultural national policies towards domestic support and implications related to WTO rules. Domestic support has taken central stage in the last years and in light of a global ...

The formula approach used in many trade negotiations involves large formula cuts in high tariffs, with flexibilities that allow smaller cuts for selected products. Difficulties in evaluating the effects of these exceptions can create major ...

This report examines the competitiveness of the food processing sector in Viet Nam, focusing on four subsectors: rice milling, coffee processing, seafood processing, and fruits and vegetables. The rationale for the study is that Viet Nam, as a ...

This paper examines the extent of cooperative behaviour in rural Uganda as recorded in the most recent nationally representative household survey. Summary statistics on the presence of marketing cooperatives, recently formed National Agricultural ...

Cotton, textiles, and apparel are critical agricultural and industrial sectors in Pakistan. This study provides descriptions of these sectors and examines the key developments emerging domestically and internationally that affect the challenges ...

Dr David Laborde Debucquet has joined IFPRI, Washington DC, in 2007. He is a Research Fellow and co-leader of the “Globalization and markets” research project inside the Markets, Trade and Institutions division. Prior going to Washington, he was ...

The objective of this paper is to analyze the best trade approach for Southern Mediterranean countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey) that helps them increase market access and develop trade policies ...

The rapid growth in consumer demand for livestock offers an opportunity to reduce poverty among smallholder livestock farmers in the developing world. These farmers’ opportunity may be threatened, however, by competition from larger-scale ...

Agricultural markets play a key role in the lives of poor people in developing countries. More than half the population in developing regions (58 percent) and more than three-quarters of the poor—defined as those living on less than US$1 per ...

“Agricultural diversification towards high-value crops can potentially increase farm incomes, especially in a country like India where demand for high-value food products has been increasing more quickly than that for staple crops. Indian ...

The paper examines the possible impact of Doha agreement on Philippine poverty. Using a detailed CGE analysis, the agreement is observed to depress world demand for Philippine agricultural exports, and thus slightly increase poverty, especially ...

In recent years the European Union has sought to transform its trading regime with the ACP countries by advocating reciprocal free trade agreements with them through Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). As a result, the EPA talks were launched ...

Processing of meat and crops accounts for a large share of manufacturing in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The paper assesses empirically the impact of hypothesized productivity change in agro-food processing on growth, trade, employment, and input ...

“This paper is an empirical analysis of the gains from contract farming in the case of poultry production in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The paper finds that contract production is more efficient than noncontract production. ...

Ekin joined the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division of IFPRI in July 2007, as a member of the Food and Water Safety team. From 2004 to 2007 she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. While at Cambridge, she ...

CONTENTS: Introduction / Objectives of the Report and of Compensation / Background and Rationale for Assessing Good Practices / Context in Which Compensation Occurs / Approach to Ascertaining Good Practice / Deciding Who to Compensate: The ...

Higher world food prices have led many governments in developing countries to adopt policy measures to mitigate the adverse impact on low-income households. This paper sets out a partial equilibrium framework to evaluate the relative efficiency, ...

There have been different degrees of exchange rate disequilibrium in the developing countries during transition or reform periods since the mid 1980s. The level of the exchange rate and its misalignment can have significant impacts on ...

“Identifying growth poles in the SSA region, strengthening linkages and generating mutual benefits across African countries is an important part of the strategy to promote agriculture-led growth at the Africa-wide scale. Using agricultural ...

The seemingly inexhaustible oceans have proved to be finite after all. Capture of wild fish have leveled off since the mid-1980s, and many stocks of fish are fished so heavily that their future is threatened. And yet the world’s appetite for fish ...

Guarding the safety of a nation’s food supply and providing standards and information to guide consumers’ food choices are the joint responsibilities of governments and the private sector. But differences in the way countries fulfill ...

Countries in Southern Africa have engaged in a variety of trade liberalization initiatives. In this paper, the authors use a multi-country, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to analyze the impact of trade liberalization on countries, ...

In developing countries across Asia, food marketing parastatals have played an important role in agricultural policy, especially with regard to government efforts to stabilize food prices. Three broad market failures constitute the primary ...

People in developed countries currently consume about 3 to 4 times as much meat and fish, and 5 to 6 times as much milk products per capita as in developing Asia and Africa. Meat, milk, and fish consumption per capita has barely grown in the ...

Using case studies from six Asian countries, this paper (a) assesses the relevance of underlying rationales for public intervention in foodgrain markets, (b) documents the existing policies and regulations that support operation of grain ...

IFPRI’s agricultural trade liberalization work on the WTO’s Doha Negotiations has resulted in approximately 70 publications since 2004. IFPRI ex-ante impact assessment discussion paper #28 in 2008 by external evaluator Joanna Hewitt (“Impact ...

Indonesian economy has experienced some major changes during the last three decades and transformed from a predominantly agricultural economy to one that relies more heavily on its non-agricultural sector. Within agriculture, there has also been ...

We quantify the importance of peer effects in group lending by estimating a static game of incomplete information. In our model, group members make their repayment decisions simultaneously based on their household and loan characteristics as well ...

References

The impact of trade liberalization on developing countries has been a topic of some interest and controversy for many years, but the debate became prominent during the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations. The suspension of the Doha ...

The 2007-08 international food price crisis caused hardship on a number of fronts. The steep rise in food prices led to economic difficulties for the poor and generated political turmoil in many countries. The crisis could also result in ...

In this study, we examine the implications of the May 2008 WTO draft agricultural modalities for India’s market access and domestic support policies. In the case of market access, most of India’s agricultural tariffs are of the ad ...

The May 2008 draft agricultural modalities (WTO 2008) are the result of seven years of hard negotiations. Their structure, if not every detail, seems likely to be the basis for final proposals that must either be ratified or rejected by ...

Contract farming is emerging as an important form of vertical coordination in the agrifood supply chain in India, and its socioeconomic consequences are attracting considerable attention in public policy debates. This study is an empirical ...

In many ways, Vietnam is in an enviable position among developing countries. Since the mid-1990s, it has enjoyed macro-economic stability and sustained high rates of economic growth. According to the Vietnam Living Standards Surveys, the ...

“Using detailed trader surveys in Benin, Madagascar, and Malawi, this paper investigates the presence of increasing returns in agricultural trade. After analyzing margins, costs, and value added, we find little evidence of returns to scale. ...

The Mongolian rural economy is based on livestock reared by semi-nomadic herders. Agriculture contributes around 20 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, and herding accounts for more than 80 percent of agriculture. According to the ...

In this brief, the authors suggest five areas for action to put rural India on a higher growth trajectory that would cut hunger, malnutrition, and unemployment at a much faster pace than has been the case so far. The five areas for action are ...

This brief is based on Information and Communication Technologies for Development and Poverty Reduction: The Potential of Telecommunications, ed. Maximo Torero and Joachim von Braun (Johns Hopkins University Press and IFPRI, 2006) The ...

Risk and poverty are inextricably linked. Susceptibility to risk is a defining feature of what it means to be poor. Poor people often live in environments characterized by high weather and disease risk, and it is poor households that have the ...

“Financing for water projects, especially for irrigation, has been moving towards collapse in recent years due to declining donor and government funding. Some Indian states have undertaken innovative institutional reforms by setting up ...

As water resources become increasing scare in India and demand only increases, the challenge of sustaining irrigation systems and the lands they serve is a matter of crucial importance. In particular, the livelihood of millions of farmers is ...

In The dragon and the elephant: Agricultural and rural reforms in China and India, ed. Ashok Gulati, and Shenggen Fan. Chapter 1. Pp. 3-9

This paper reviews the trends in government subsidies and investments in and for Indian agriculture; develops a conceptual framework and model to assess the impact of various subsidies and investments on agricultural growth and poverty reduction; ...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of Japan’s agricultural domestic policy since 1995 in the context of the current international negotiations in the WTO Doha Round, which has as one aim further reductions of ...

This essay describes the views of Philippines livestock sector stakeholders concerning the events and issues associated with the rapid rise in hog and poultry production, based on rapid reconnaissance interviews and gray literature from studies ...

A team of researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) collaborated to produce this ...

“This study examines the impact of alternative price stabilization policies for edible oils and oilseeds in India on the farmers growing oilseeds, the consumers of edible oils and the processing sector with the help of a multi market ...

A key consideration in planning action to assist poor and hungry households is simply to have a good understanding of where they live and the characteristics of those locations. For the past 10 years, poverty researchers at the World Bank, ...

This paper examines how market institutions can affect links between urban and rural areas with specific emphasis on goods market integration in the national context.Traditionally, development researchers and practitioners have focused either on ...

Inadequate policies, institutions, and rural infrastructure lead to agricultural markets that do not function efficiently. As a consequence, the poor pay more for their food and receive less for their produce. To enhance the efficiency of ...

Maximo Torero is the Division Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division at the International Food Policy Research Institute, leader of the Global Research Program on Institutions and Infrastructure for Market Development and ...

Questions in development economics often focus on the poor’s limited access to capital and, in particular, on their high interest rate for borrowing. Despite this high price for capital, many poor households borrow substantial amounts for ...

Nicholas W. Minot is a senior research fellow in the Markets, Trade and Institutions Division. Since joining IFPRI in 1997, he has carried out research on the agricultural market reform, fertilizer policy, fruit and vegetable markets, and the ...

This book describes how Bangladesh transformed its food markets and food policies to free the country from the constant threat of famine. Since 1990, the Bangladeshi government has dismantled its food rationing system, privatized grain ...

Pakistan’s economy relies heavily on its cotton and textile sectors. The cotton-processing and textile industries make up almost half of the country’s manufacturing base, while cotton is Pakistan’s principal industrial crop, ...

Despite progress in recent years, the incidence of poverty in the Philippines remains very high: the national poverty rate was more than 30 percent in 2003, with even higher levels in rural areas. Because poor Filipino households spend more than ...

This paper looks at how Philippine trade reform which consists of tariff reduction and elimination of quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports will affect poverty within two world trade scenarios: Doha and free world trade. The impact of ...

High production and export subsidies in developed countries and high protection in both developed and developing countries have distorted rice trade. This study estimates the impact of rice policy distortions on developing countries’ rice ...

Globalization could and should benefit developing countries. But unlike a rising tide that lifts all boats, large and small, globalization is unequal. It has fallen far short of its much-ballyhooed potential to help the world’s poorest ...

This study uses a relatively new method called “small area estimation” to estimate various measures of poverty and inequality for provinces, districts, and communes of Vietnam. The method was applied by combining information from the ...

Spatially disaggregated maps of the incidence of poverty can be constructed by combining household survey data and census data. In some cases, however, statistical authorities are reluctant, for reasons of confidentiality, to release ...

Given that Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of poverty and malnutrition in the world, the stagnation in per capita grain production there is worrisome. Since 1970, per capita grain production in Sub-Saharan Africa has declined more ...

Microinsurance is a powerful tool in helping low-income households transition out of poverty, but it has not achieved substantial scale compared with microcredit. In India, microfinance institutions (MFIs) initially showed great potential in ...

“Using original data collected about growers, traders, processors, markets, and village communities, we compare the situation in four states - Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Orissa. We examine the way that information about ...

Through a survey of approximately 1300 farmers, millers and traders, this study undertook an in-depth investigation of the rice marketing system in the midst of its transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. Its findings ...

Risk is a pervasive feature of life in poor rural areas of developing countries. This brief outlines a conceptual framework for understanding the nature of risks faced by poor rural households and their consequences before turning to a more ...

Ruth Hill joined IFPRI in January 2007. Ruth received a PhD in economics from the University of Oxford in 2005. Her thesis examined the impact of uncertainty on the welfare and production decisions coffee farmers in Uganda. As part of her ...

A dramatic increase over the past fifteen years in domestic pork demand and production in the Philippines has created a potentially profitable opportunity for poor rural and agricultural households. In Southern and Central Luzon, the two biggest ...

On January 1, 2008, Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs), currently being negotiated between the European Union (EU) and nearly 80 African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries, are expected to replace the Cotonou Agreement, which has ...

This training guide introduces development practitioners, policy analysts, and students to social accounting matrices (SAMs) and their use in policy analysis. There are already a number of books that explain the System of National Accounts and ...

“This study examines the sources of crop income growth in Indian agriculture over the 1980s and 1990s. Using a method developed by Minot (2003), the analysis decomposes crop income growth into the contribution of yield increases, area ...

To promote development, there is increasing need for activities and policies which generate and diversify income in rural areas. The starch industry in Viet Nam provides a good example of rural industrialization whereby low-value agricultural ...

A broad survey of expert opinions in was conducted July 2000 to February 2001, with over 1500 questionnaires mailed to experts within and outside Africa on nominations of African agricultural success stories and the rationale for selection of ...

Farmers face a variety of market and production risks that make their incomes volatile from year to year. In many cases, farmers also confront the risk of catastrophe, as, for example, when crops are destroyed by drought or pest outbreaks or when ...

With the Biotech Revolution, questions are being asked about what role the government should play in the process-does public research in developing countries play a role? Can governments speed the spread of technology by offering complementary ...

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the 1998 floods, the response of the government, and the coping strategies of households. It contains valuable lessons for developing countries on maintaining food security following major ...

During the past two-and-a-half decades, China and India have implemented a series of economic reforms that have led to recent growth rates of 9-11 percent per year in China and 8-9 percent per year in India. The rapid economic growth of the two ...

China and India are the most extraordinary economic success stories of the developing world. Both nations’ economies have grown dramatically over the past few decades, elevating them from two of the world’s poorest countries into ...

By using a global computable general equilibrium model, this report analyzes the impact of various pending free trade agreements for Peru. In December 2007, a Peru-United States free trade agreement (FTA) was finally ratified by the U.S. ...

Global retail chains are becoming increasingly dominant in the global food trade and their rise leads to dramatic impacts on agricultural supply chains and on small producers. However, the prospects and impacts of a food retail revolution in poor ...

This paper attempts to define the nature, extent, scope, and implications of what the authors term the “Live stock Revolution” in developing countries. Looking forward to 2020, they argue that the structural shifts in world ...

People in developed countries consume about 3 to 4 times as much meat and fish, and 5 to 6 times as much milk products per capita as in developing Asia and Africa. Yet, meat, milk, and fish consumption per capita has barely grown in the ...

While the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) remains a hotly debated issue in all five Central American countries that are part of the treaty, most discussions are based on preconceived opinions rather than grounded in research-based ...

The objective of this paper is to review the agricultural trade and domestic policies of the Philippines and to provide an assessment of the types and levels of domestic support relative to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Changes ...

In times of economic turmoil, countries might decide to increase current tariff rates to protect domestic industries or raise revenues in order to finance domestic programs. Using the highest applied or bound rate imposed by countries from 1995 ...

This paper is a description and an analysis of trade liberalization under CAFTA. It shows that in the short run the impact of the agreement is likely to be small. Since the U.S. already grants tariff-free access under the CBI, trade ...

This paper attempts to assess the impact of trade liberalization on growth, poverty, and food security in India with the help of a national-level computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results show that the gross domestic product (GDP) ...

As of June 2006, a final agreement has eluded the parties to the Doha Development Round trade negotiations. There was little finality to the December 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial conference negotiations, even though members agreed to eliminate ...

This paper examines past and proposed U.S. domestic support in light of current and potential World Trade Organization (WTO) constraints. It provides a brief review of U.S. farm policies since the Uruguay Round WTO agreements went into effect, ...

Objectives The objective of this training module is to explain how to use GAMS to construct, calibrate, and modify agricultural sector models in order to simulate the effect of alternative policies or other events affecting agricultural markets. ...

“Policies of devolving management of resources from the state to user groups are premised upon the assumption that users will organize and take on the necessary management tasks. While experience has shown that in many places users do so ...

The food price crisis of 2007-08 had several causes-rising demand for food, the change in the food equation through biofuels, climate change, high oil prices-but there is substantial evidence that the crisis was made worse by the malfunctioning ...

For more than six years the trade talks of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been stalled, mainly on account of differences in countries’ levels of ambition for reducing support to and protection of agriculture. The expiration of the ...

Yanyan Liu joined IFPRI in June 2009. Yanyan received a joint PhD in economics and agricultural economics from Michigan State University in 2006. Her dissertation examined determinants of maize productivity in Kenya and studied valuation of ...