Food Price Policy in an Era of Market Instability: A Political Economy Analysis

Food price volatility is one of the major challenges facing current and future global food systems. Since 2006, global food prices have fluctuated greatly around an increasing trend and price spikes were observed for key food commodities such as rice, wheat, and maize. The full or partial transmission of these global food price changes to individual developing countries, together with domestic food price changes, caused by domestic factors such as extreme weather events and market disruptions, caused governments to respond in a variety of ways. While there is ample description of the nature, content, and causes of food price fluctuations during the last 5 to 7 years, very little is known about the processes that led to policy responses or the relative power and behaviour of the participating stakeholder groups. Understanding how and why governments responded as they did is important to enhance the existing knowledge of the political economy of food price policy and to assist governments in their policy-making as they confront future food price fluctuations. This book presents results from political economy studies of food price policy in 14 developing countries as well as the United States and the European Union. Contributors to this volume - Assefa Admassie, Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute Suresh Babu, International Food Policy Research Institute Kenneth Baltzer, University of Copenhagen Shane Bryan, International Potato Center Antony Chapoto, International Food Policy Research Institute Blessings Chinsinga, University of Malawi Ephraim W. Chirwa, University of Malawi Kavery Ganguly, Confederation of Indian Industry Ahmed Farouk Ghoneim, Cairo University Harry de Gorter, Cornell University Ashok Gulati, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices Jikun Huang, Chinese Academy of Sciences Johann F. Kirsten, University of Pretoria Louise Knops, Centre for European Policy Studies Claudio Massingarela, University of Science and Technology Bernardo Mueller, University of Brasilia Charles Mueller, University of Brasilia Virgulino Nhate, provincial director of Planning and Finance, Manica Province Nguyen Manh Hai, Central Institute for Economic Management Jonathan Makau Nzuma, University of Nairobi Aderibigbe S. Olomola, NISER, Ibadan Per Pinstrup-Andersen, Cornell University and Copenhagen University Selim Raihan, University of Dhaka Gordon C. Rausser, University of California, Berkeley Danielle Resnick, UNU-WIDER Scott Rozelle, Stanford University Johan Swinnen, Catholic University of Leuven Vincenzo Salvucci, University of Copenhagen Theodore Talbot, University of Copenhagen Kristine Van Herck, Catholic University of Leuven Derrill D. Watson II, American University of Nigeria Jun Yang, Chinese Academy of Sciences