Commodity market reforms: lessons of two decades.

By T. Akiyama. 2001

181 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Structural reform of the economies of developing countries has been in the forefront of development interest since the early 1980s. This interest stems from a recognition that the structures and institutions of these countries are critical to any enhancement of economic and social development. One of the key reforms has been that of primary commodity markets, especially agricultural commodity markets, because many developing countries, including the poorest, depend heavily on these for foreign exchange earnings and employment, and hence for poverty reduction. This report focuses on the political economy and institutional aspects of agricultural commodity market reform. In order to explore in detail factors that are critical to the processes, consequences, and substance of reform, the authors have focused the analysis and evaluation on five commodities important in many developing countries, specifically cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, and cereal. In doing so, they highlight important lessons on how agricultural sector reform can be launched and implemented. Some of the factors identified in the report as being key to successful reform include the recognition that commodity markets often affect communities and even politics, that the initial conditions of markets are critical, and that government intervention can crowd out private sector initiatives, especially when it comes to building the institutions needed to develop a healthy agricultural sector.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3a40d2dc2cfcb22caff0bd31d063e373884e07ea

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Citations in the corpus

Commodity market reform in Africa : some recent experience (2003, unknown): “Ugandan coffee producer prices increased from 40 percent prior to reforms to over 70 percent after the reforms (Akiyama, 2001).”
Political Economy of Public Policies: Insights from Distortions to Agricultural and Food Markets (2013, unknown): “Some policy reforms were reversed after the loans were in place, but many appear to have stuck (Akiyama et al. 2001; Kherallah et al. 2002).”
Networks, communities and markets in sub-Saharan Africa: implications for firm growth and investment (2001, background): “Traditional explanations for international patterns of trade, ________________ 22 In several African countries, market liberalization has resulted in new entry, but much of it seems to be in primary production and exports (e.g., Akiyama et al. (1999)).”
The 'Latte Revolution'? Regulation, Markets and Consumption in the Global Coffee Chain (2002, background): “In some countries, international traders have moved upstream 22 all the way to domestic trade and in some cases to estate production (Akiyama, 2001; Losch, 1999; Ponte, 2002a).”
Tax Me If You Can: Ethnic Geography, Democracy, and the Taxation of Agriculture in Africa (2007, background): “This may create a natural monopsony, putting cotton farmers at a disadvantage relative to other cash crop farmers (Baffes 2001).”
Cocoa in Ghana : Shaping the Success of an Economy (2010, background): “Many scholars (Bates 2005; McMillan 1998; Akiyama et al. 2001) hold that marketing boards in Africa have long operated as corrupt institutions taxing farmers through the power to set prices and indirectly by maintaining overvalued exchange rates.”
Is there co-movement of agricultural commodities futures prices and crude oil? (2011, background): “This change of price movements may be attributed to the coffee market liberalization, which began in the ‘90s and continued throughout the decade (Akiyama, 2001).”