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Food Subsidies

In: World Food Security

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  • D. John Shaw

Abstract

Interest in consumer food subsidy programmes was accentuated during the 1980s not only because of concern with the increasing number of hungry people in developing countries as their access to food deteriorated but also because of the social dimensions of structural adjustment programmes that the World Bank and IMF were advocating and the need to find effective compensatory measures to protect the poor during the economic adjustment process. Research and experience showed that consumer food subsidies aimed at reducing consumer food prices below the free-market level could be a double-edged sword. They could be a powerful and cost-effective policy tool to reach certain social, economic and political goals, or they could be harmful to growth and equity. As with so many other policy tools, the question was not whether consumer food subsidies were good or bad but when and how they were applied. And subsidies were only one means of keeping consumer prices low: they were also open to abuse.

Suggested Citation

  • D. John Shaw, 2007. "Food Subsidies," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: World Food Security, chapter 22, pages 264-268, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-58978-0_22
    DOI: 10.1057/9780230589780_22
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