Annual Review of Resource Economics
Headey, H., Martin, W.
2016-07-14
Article on literature review and analysis of why different authors often reach different conclusions regarding the welfare impacts of food price changes. Firstly, systematic measurement errors in household surveys may have seriously affected estimates of the poor's dependence on food purchases at any given point in time. Then a theoretical case for why the rural poor may have ultimately benefitted from higher food prices, with a particular focus on agricultural supply responses and resultant increases in demand for unskilled farm labor, which raised the wages of the poor. Consistent with predictions from this paper, more sophisticated simulation models and new econometric evidence suggested that sustained increases in food prices have often benefited the poor and likely contributed to faster global poverty reduction from the mid-2000s onward. Conversely, the recent decline in agricultural prices could retard global poverty reduction.
- Economic
- Food Insecurity
- Other Crises
- Global
- Households
- Research
- Article
- Journal article
