Agricultural Price Distortions, Inequality, and Poverty

by Kym Anderson (Editor), John Cockburn (Editor), Will Martin (Editor)

Overview

The prices of farm products are crucial determinants of the extent of poverty and inequality in the world. The vast majority of the world’s poorest households depend to a considerable extent on farming for their incomes, while food represents a large component of the consumption of all poor households. For generations, food prices have been heavily distorted by government policies in high-income and developing countries. Many countries began to reform their agricultural price and trade policies in the 1980s, but government policy intervention is still considerable and still favors farmers in high-income countries at the expense of many farmers in developing countries. What would be the poverty and inequality consequences of the removal of the remaining distortions to agricultural incentives? This question is of great relevance to governments in evaluating ways to engage in multilateral and regional trade negotiations or to improve their own policies unilaterally. 'Agricultural Price Distortions, Inequality, and Poverty' analyzes the effects of agricultural and trade policies around the world on national and regional economic welfare, on income inequality among and within countries, and on the level and incidence of poverty in developing countries. The studies include economy-wide analyses of the inequality and poverty effects of own-country policies compared with rest-of-the-world policies for 10 individual developing countries in three continents. This book also includes three chapters that each use a separate global economic model to examine the effects of policies on aggregate poverty and the distribution of poverty across many identified developing countries. This study is motivated by two policy issues: first, the World Trade Organization’s struggle to conclude the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, in which agricultural policy reform is, again, one of the most contentious topics in the talks and, second, the struggle of the developing countries to achieve their Millennium Development Goals by 2015—notably the alleviation of hunger and poverty—which depends crucially on policies that affect agricultural incentives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780821381847
Publisher:	World Bank Publications
Publication date:	03/17/2010
Series:	Trade and Development
Pages:	540
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword xvii

Acknowledgments xix

Contributors xxi

Abbreviations xxv

Part I Introduction 1

1 Introduction and Summary Kym Anderson John Cockburn Will Martin 3

Part II Global CGE Approaches 47

2 Global Welfare and Poverty Effects: Linkage Model Results Kym Anderson Ernesto Valenzuela Dominique van der Mensbrugghe 49

3 Global Poverty and Distributional Impacts: The GIDD Model Maurizio Bussolo Rafael De Hoyos Denis Medvedev 87

4 Poverty Impacts in 15 Countries: The GTAP Model Thomas W. Hertel Roman Keeney 119

Part III National CGE Approaches: Asia 145

5 China Fan Zhai Thomas W. Hertel 147

6 Indonesia Peter Warr 179

7 Pakistan Caesar B. Cororaton David Orden 209

8 The Philippines Caesar B. Cororaton Erwin Corong John Cockburn 247

9 Thailand Peter Warr 283

Part IV National CGE Approaches: Africa 301

10 Mozambique Channing Arndt James Thurlow 303

11 South Africa Nicolas Hérault James Thurlow 331

Part V National CGE Approaches: Latin America 357

12 Argentina Martín Cicowiez Carolina Díaz-Bonilla Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla 359

13 Brazil Joaquim Bento de Souza Ferreira Filho Mark Horridge 391

14 Nicaragua Marco V. Sáanchez Rob Vos 423

Appendix: Border Price and Export Demand Shocks in Developing Countries from Rest-of-the-World Trade Liberalization: The Linkage Model Dominique van der Mensbrugghe Ernesto Valenzuela Kym Anderson 457

Index 489