Implications of Higher Global Food Prices for Poverty in Low-Income Countries

By M. Ivanic, Will Martin. 2008

951 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In many poor countries, the recent increases in prices of staple foods raise the real incomes of those selling food, many of whom are relatively poor, while hurting net food consumers, many of whom are also relatively poor. The impacts on poverty will certainly be very diverse, but the average impact on poverty depends upon the balance between these two effects, and can only be determined by looking at real-world data. Results using household data for ten observations on nine low-income countries show that the short-run impacts of higher staple food prices on poverty differ considerably by commodity and by country, but, that poverty increases are much more frequent, and larger, than poverty reductions. The recent large increases in food prices appear likely to raise overall poverty in low income countries substantially.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e7bc866d6d6a7ad09e0fadbc5e57d79b3267d50a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Economics and Econometrics

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Climate Change, Agriculture And Poverty (2010, background): “…– is one of the sectors that is most vulnerable to climate change (World Development Report 2010, 5), The poor are also extremely vulnerable to increases in food prices, as demonstrated by the poverty consequences of the recent food price spike (Ivanic and Martin 2008; De Hoyos and Medvedev 2009).”
Impacts of Rising Food Prices on Poverty and Welfare in Vietnam (2011, methodology): “These results differ from past findings, which reported that higher food prices in developing countries hurt the rural poor because most of them are net food buyers (Deaton, 1989; Ravallion, 1990; Ivanic and Martin, 2008).”
The role of international trade in managing food security risks from climate change (2015, background): “Evidence on the historical poverty impact of food price spikes — albeit emanating from a variety of causes (Abbott et al. 2011) — is offered by Ivanic and Martin (2008) who estimated the changes in poverty rates in a sample of 10 developing countries in the light of the food price spikes of…”
rethinking agricultural production collectivities (2010, background): “7 See Robinson (1967) and Nove (1969) for the USSR; and Lin (1990) and Putterman (1997) for China.”
The developing world is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty (2008, neutral): “Ex ante projections of the welfare impacts of the rise in food prices for a set of nine low-income countries by Ivanic and Martin (2008) predict that, on balance, the rise in food prices over 2005-07 will have been povertyincreasing.”
The impact of rising food prices on the poor (2008, methodology): “…importance, the transmission of prices to domestic markets, and the prospects for future price trends, a number of contributions have emerged that look at the microeconomic impact of the crisis (Ivanic and Martin, 2008; Aksoy and Isik-Dikmelik, 2008; Dessus et al., 2008; and Rios et al., 2008a).”
The impacts of food price and income shocks on household food security and economic well-being: Evidence from rural Bangladesh (2014, background): “In some rare cases these studies take account of market and national-level responses to such shocks (e.g., adjustments to wages; incentives to export-oriented enterprises; abolition of import tariffs; food subsidies) (Ivanic and Martin, 2008; Anderson et al., 2013).”
An Inquiry into Constraints on a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of NERICA Rice in Uganda (2011, background): “The recent sudden and sharp increase in food prices in international markets has significantly and adversely threatened food security in developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), which is a net importer of food grains (Benson, Mugarura, & Wanda, 2008; Ivanic & Martin, 2008).”
The 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies (2009, background): “Soaring food prices have most impacted developing countries, especially the low income food deficit countries (LIFDCs) (Maros and Martin, 2008).”
The Global Supply and Demand for Agricultural Land in 2050: A Perfect Storm in the Making? AAEA Presidential Address (2010, background): “This is important, since price increases of this magnitude could have a significant impact on global poverty (Ivanic and Martin 2008).”