How Successful Are Government Interventions in Food Markets? Insights from the Philippine Rice Market

This paper investigates the Philippine government's price stabilization policy for rice. Seemingly unrelated regressions are used to examine the effectiveness of the program at regional and national levels over a 21-year period (January 1983 to December 2003). Results of the regional analysis indicate some National Food Authority (NFA)-induced spatial and temporal differences in terms of producer prices. The authors argue that the NFA should concentrate its efforts in the poorest areas of the country, where it might exert greater and more useful influence in smaller and locally thin rice markets.