Spatial integration at multiple scales: rice markets in Madagascar
Abstract
The dramatic increase in the price of rice and other commodities over the past year has generated new interest in how these markets work and how they can be improved. This article uses an exceptionally rich data set to test the extent to which markets in Madagascar are integrated across space at different scales of analysis and to explain some of the factors that limit spatial arbitrage and price equalization within a single country. We use rice price data across four quarters of 2000-2001 along with data on transportation costs and infrastructure availability for nearly 1,400 communes in Madagascar to examine the extent of market integration at three different spatial scales-subregional, regional, and national-and to determine whether non-integration is due to high transfer costs or lack of competition. The results indicate that markets are fairly well integrated at the subregional level and that factors such as high crime rates, remoteness, and lack of information are among the factors limiting competition. Copyright (c) 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists.Download Info
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
Bibliographic Info
Article provided by International Association of Agricultural Economists in its journal Agricultural Economics.
Volume (Year): 40 (2009)
Issue (Month): 3 (05)
Pages: 281-294
Contact details of provider:
Email:
Web page: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0169-5150
More information through EDIRC
Order Information:
Web: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=0169-5150
Related research
Keywords:References
No references listed on IDEASYou can help add them by filling out this form.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Zant, Wouter, 2013. "How is the liberalization of food markets progressing ? market integration and transaction costs in subsistence economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6331, The World Bank.
- Chris Doucougliagos & Henry Haszler & Phillip Hone, 2007. "Spatial Pricing Efficiency in Fiji's Municipal Food Markets," Economics Series 2007_05, Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
- Ole Boysen, 2009. "Border Price Shocks, Spatial Price Variation, and their Impacts on Poverty in Uganda," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp306, IIIS.
- Quattri, Maria A., 2012. "On trade efficiency in the Ethiopian agricultural markets," 123rd Seminar, February 23-24, 2012, Dublin, Ireland 122512, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
- Minot, Nicholas, 2011. "Transmission of world food price changes to markets in Sub-Saharan Africa:," IFPRI discussion papers 1059, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Lists
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.Statistics
Access and download statisticsCorrections
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:40:y:2009:i:3:p:281-294For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Wiley-Blackwell Digital Licensing) or (Christopher F. Baum).
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

