Asymmetric Price Transmission between Local and Imported Rice Prices in Burkina Faso

The study of how price signals in imported rice market influences prices in the local rice market is essential in understanding the inter-relationship between these prices and how soaring global food prices affect prices of locally produced agricultural commodities. This study uses a set of cointegration and error correction models with symmetric and asymmetric adjustment towards the long-run equilibrium to investigate the long-run relationship between local and imported rice prices and the extent to which imported rice prices are transmitted to local rice prices in Burkina Faso. Using national average consumer prices from January 2000 to June 2011, empirical results from the Engle-Granger and Johansen cointegration tests show that consumer price of local rice is significantly integrated with the imported rice market prices. Both threshold cointegration and asymmetric error correction models indicate that consumer prices of local rice respond asymmetrically to shocks from the imported rice price. Specifically, local rice prices respond rapidly to negative shocks while positive shocks take substantial amount of time to be transmitted. These findings provide clear empirical evidence with respect to the impact of imported rice prices on local rice prices and the role of profit-seeking traders in maintaining or increasing the price wedge between the two prices in Burkina Faso.