The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?

Food prices rose sharply on the international market between January 2005 and mid-2008, precipitating what has become known as the "global food crisis". Yet, how much of a crisis was it at the household level, and for whom was it a crisis? This paper analyzes the welfare effects of changes in prices over categories of households in Guatemala. We find three surprising results. The first is that there was no statistically significant transmission of international into domestic prices over the three and a half years that the crisis lasted. Most real staple food prices rose, but changes were modest and certainly far removed from full transmission as frequently assumed. Welfare effects were as a consequence small. The second surprising result is that, given high food dependency for farmer households, including large farmers, most of these households lost from the rise in prices, especially of course the marginal, small, and medium farmers. Only if international prices had fully transmitted would half of the large farmers have gained, with the vast majority in the other categories still losing. Allowing for price responses in both production and consumption mitigates negative effects, but still leaves a vast majority of the farmer population losing. Finally, the third surprising result is that farmer households represent as many as two-thirds of all poor households losing from rising food prices. Increasing the productivity of production for home consumption in smallholder farming can thus be an important instrument in combating the short run welfare losses of rising food prices among poor households.

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Main Authors: De Janvry, Alain autor/a, Sadoulet, Elizabeth autor/a
Format: Texto biblioteca
Language:eng
Subjects:Crisis alimentaria, Precios, Consumo (Economía), Economía doméstica, Oferta y demanda, Artfrosur,
Online Access:http://are.berkeley.edu/~sadoulet/papers/GuatemalaFoodPricesMay09.pdf
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id KOHA-OAI-ECOSUR:49727
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spelling KOHA-OAI-ECOSUR:497272020-11-25T15:30:06ZThe global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom? De Janvry, Alain autor/a Sadoulet, Elizabeth autor/a textengFood prices rose sharply on the international market between January 2005 and mid-2008, precipitating what has become known as the "global food crisis". Yet, how much of a crisis was it at the household level, and for whom was it a crisis? This paper analyzes the welfare effects of changes in prices over categories of households in Guatemala. We find three surprising results. The first is that there was no statistically significant transmission of international into domestic prices over the three and a half years that the crisis lasted. Most real staple food prices rose, but changes were modest and certainly far removed from full transmission as frequently assumed. Welfare effects were as a consequence small. The second surprising result is that, given high food dependency for farmer households, including large farmers, most of these households lost from the rise in prices, especially of course the marginal, small, and medium farmers. Only if international prices had fully transmitted would half of the large farmers have gained, with the vast majority in the other categories still losing. Allowing for price responses in both production and consumption mitigates negative effects, but still leaves a vast majority of the farmer population losing. Finally, the third surprising result is that farmer households represent as many as two-thirds of all poor households losing from rising food prices. Increasing the productivity of production for home consumption in smallholder farming can thus be an important instrument in combating the short run welfare losses of rising food prices among poor households.Food prices rose sharply on the international market between January 2005 and mid-2008, precipitating what has become known as the "global food crisis". Yet, how much of a crisis was it at the household level, and for whom was it a crisis? This paper analyzes the welfare effects of changes in prices over categories of households in Guatemala. We find three surprising results. The first is that there was no statistically significant transmission of international into domestic prices over the three and a half years that the crisis lasted. Most real staple food prices rose, but changes were modest and certainly far removed from full transmission as frequently assumed. Welfare effects were as a consequence small. The second surprising result is that, given high food dependency for farmer households, including large farmers, most of these households lost from the rise in prices, especially of course the marginal, small, and medium farmers. Only if international prices had fully transmitted would half of the large farmers have gained, with the vast majority in the other categories still losing. Allowing for price responses in both production and consumption mitigates negative effects, but still leaves a vast majority of the farmer population losing. Finally, the third surprising result is that farmer households represent as many as two-thirds of all poor households losing from rising food prices. Increasing the productivity of production for home consumption in smallholder farming can thus be an important instrument in combating the short run welfare losses of rising food prices among poor households.Adobe Acrobat profesional 6.0 o superior e InternetCrisis alimentariaPreciosConsumo (Economía)Economía domésticaOferta y demandaArtfrosurDisponible en líneaWorld Developmenthttp://are.berkeley.edu/~sadoulet/papers/GuatemalaFoodPricesMay09.pdfAcceso en línea sin restricciones
institution ECOSUR
collection Koha
country México
countrycode MX
component Bibliográfico
access En linea
En linea
databasecode cat-ecosur
tag biblioteca
region America del Norte
libraryname Sistema de Información Bibliotecario de ECOSUR (SIBE)
language eng
topic Crisis alimentaria
Precios
Consumo (Economía)
Economía doméstica
Oferta y demanda
Artfrosur
Crisis alimentaria
Precios
Consumo (Economía)
Economía doméstica
Oferta y demanda
Artfrosur
spellingShingle Crisis alimentaria
Precios
Consumo (Economía)
Economía doméstica
Oferta y demanda
Artfrosur
Crisis alimentaria
Precios
Consumo (Economía)
Economía doméstica
Oferta y demanda
Artfrosur
De Janvry, Alain autor/a
Sadoulet, Elizabeth autor/a
The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
description Food prices rose sharply on the international market between January 2005 and mid-2008, precipitating what has become known as the "global food crisis". Yet, how much of a crisis was it at the household level, and for whom was it a crisis? This paper analyzes the welfare effects of changes in prices over categories of households in Guatemala. We find three surprising results. The first is that there was no statistically significant transmission of international into domestic prices over the three and a half years that the crisis lasted. Most real staple food prices rose, but changes were modest and certainly far removed from full transmission as frequently assumed. Welfare effects were as a consequence small. The second surprising result is that, given high food dependency for farmer households, including large farmers, most of these households lost from the rise in prices, especially of course the marginal, small, and medium farmers. Only if international prices had fully transmitted would half of the large farmers have gained, with the vast majority in the other categories still losing. Allowing for price responses in both production and consumption mitigates negative effects, but still leaves a vast majority of the farmer population losing. Finally, the third surprising result is that farmer households represent as many as two-thirds of all poor households losing from rising food prices. Increasing the productivity of production for home consumption in smallholder farming can thus be an important instrument in combating the short run welfare losses of rising food prices among poor households.
format Texto
topic_facet Crisis alimentaria
Precios
Consumo (Economía)
Economía doméstica
Oferta y demanda
Artfrosur
author De Janvry, Alain autor/a
Sadoulet, Elizabeth autor/a
author_facet De Janvry, Alain autor/a
Sadoulet, Elizabeth autor/a
author_sort De Janvry, Alain autor/a
title The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
title_short The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
title_full The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
title_fullStr The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
title_full_unstemmed The global food crisis and Guatemala what crisis and for whom?
title_sort global food crisis and guatemala what crisis and for whom?
url http://are.berkeley.edu/~sadoulet/papers/GuatemalaFoodPricesMay09.pdf
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