World Food Prices and Human Development: Policy Simulations for Archetype Low-Income Countries
In recent years, world food prices have increased and fluctuated widely. This paper explores the impact of international food prices and domestic policies on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and macro indicators for two archetype low-income countr...
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Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2012/04/16219124/world-food-prices-human-development-policy-simulations-archetype-low-income-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6035 |
Summary: | In recent years, world food prices have
increased and fluctuated widely. This paper explores the
impact of international food prices and domestic policies on
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and macro indicators for
two archetype low-income countries, a net food exporter and
a net food importer, using Maquette for MDG Simulations
(MAMS), a Computable General Equilibrium model. The
simulations, which cover the period 2011-2025, indicate that
the size of positive (negative) effects on macro and MDG
indicators of a food export (import) price increase depend
on the initial gross domestic product share for food exports
(imports), leaving countries that are heavily involved in
international food trade more exposed to international
shocks. Given relatively low elasticity estimates, the
impact of changes in food prices on undernourishment are
relatively marginal. Flexible responses (in terms of
production shares, whether output is exported or sold at
home, and whether domestic demanders buy imports or domestic
output) enable countries to benefit from or be less hurt by
price changes. The case for policy responses to higher
import prices is stronger for the net food importer. An
untargeted food subsidy, financed by taxes or spending cuts,
reduces undernourishment at the cost of a slight
deterioration for most other indicators. By contrast,
aid-financed food subsidies neutralize the negative impact
of higher import prices whereas financing via domestic
borrowing is counterproductive, leading to a deterioration
across all indicators. If administered at moderate costs,
tax-financed targeted transfers more effectively reduce
headcount poverty and inequality with macroeconomic
repercussions similar to those of tax-financed subsidies. |
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