Policy Brief 52
by Andrew Dorward
Recent years have seen increasing average food prices, severe food price shocks (in 2007/8 and 2010/11), and increasing concerns about the impacts of food prices shocks, high food prices and food price volatility on poor and food insecure people. However, while there is general agreement that food price volatility leads to inefficient resource allocations and adjustment costs, and that high prices are bad for the urban poor (with large staple food expenditures), there has been more debate on the impacts of high food prices on the rural poor.
This policy brief
- draws on basic microeconomic theory on the different meanings and effects of changes in staple food prices to different consumers and producers.
- reviews empirical evidence of the effects of the 2008 food price spike on different people.
Recent years have seen increasing average food prices, severe food price shocks (in 2007/8 and 2010/11), and increasing concerns about the impacts of food prices shocks, high food prices and food price volatility on poor and food insecure people. However, while there is general agreement that food price volatility leads to inefficient resource allocations and adjustment costs, and that high prices are bad for the urban poor (with large staple food expenditures), there has been more debate on the impacts of high food prices on the rural poor.
This policy brief
draws on basic microeconomic theory on the different meanings and effects of changes in staple food prices to different consumers and producers.
reviews empirical evidence of the effects of the 2008 food price spike on different people.
