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Evaluating the Causes of Rising Food Prices in Low and MiddleIncome Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Osei Yeboah ,
Saleem Shaik  and
Obed Quaicoe
Osei Yeboah
Affiliation:
Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Carolina A&T University, Greensboro, North Carolina
Saleem Shaik
Affiliation:
Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota
Obed Quaicoe
Affiliation:
Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, North Carolina A&T, Greensboro, North Carolina
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Abstract

The effects of population, income, prices of major inputs, and exchange rateof the U.S. dollar on the prices of three key agricultural and foodcommodities (feed grains, oilseed, and fruits) for 13 low-income countriesand seven middle-income countries were evaluated. Given the short timeperiod, a modified seeming unrelated regression-vector autoregressive modelthat incorporates the lagged exogenous variables property of time seriesmodels and the system of equation estimation is employed in the analysis.The study finds no single factor that persistently explains all soaring foodprices as reported in the literature. The only factor that persistentlyexplains soaring food prices are the contemporaneous and one-year laggedexchange rates and income.

Keywords

food priceslow and middle-income countriesseeming unrelated regression-vector autoregressive modelFlC3Q17
Type
Invited Paper Sessions
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , August 2012 , pp. 411 - 422
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2012

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