Information Service and Integration of Cereal Markets in Burkina Faso

The cereal market of Burkina Faso was liberalised in 1992. At the same time a market information service (SIM) was created to collect data on the supply and demand conditions and, in particular, to disseminate weekly the cereal prices of regional markets by radio. The article evaluates to what extent the existence of this service contributed to the integration of the market. A cointegration analysis, and more precisely a comparison of the results for the whole period under study (1990-5) with the results for the period `after the SIM` (1992-5), leads to the conclusion that the impact of the diffusion of prices on market integration is moderate. In general, SIM does not have a significant influence on the integration of cereal markets