In this article, we study the impact of an institutional intervention on market efficiency in Ethiopia. More specifically, we study whether regional warehouses that are connected to a national commodity exchange reduce transaction cost and price dispersion between regions. In order to identify...

In der Diskussion über die Fortführung der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik nach 2014 spielen die entkoppelten Direktzahlungen eine dominierende Rolle. Während sich die Debatte innerhalb der EU vor allem um die langfristige Begründung solcher Direktzahlungen dreht, steht aus Sicht der...

While there is rich literature covering theoretical concepts of transaction costs very few empirical strategies have been provided to estimate them. The theoretical framework proposed in this paper is based on a unit value decomposition and dedines transaction costs as the difference between a...

While smallholder market participation is seen as a catalyst for poverty alleviation, farmers in rural areas face a number of challenges in doing so. One of the most important factors is considered transaction costs related to transportation. Our study quantifies the benefits associated with...

This study provides an alternative explanation for the unusual apparent decline in food consumption in rural China after 2000. We find that it is mainly attributable to significant measurement errors in the Chinese Rural Household Survey and the calculation of per capita food consumption. In a...

The high volatility of the world cocoa price makes the millions of cocoa farmers in the developing world highly vulnerable to poverty. A large volatility in the value of an agricultural commodity is linked to the inelasticity of its supply or demand. Therefore, we test the hypothesis that the...

Global food demand will see a rapid increase over the coming decades. Existing studies on future calorie demand consider mainly population growth and rising incomes. We add to the literature by estimating the effect of increases in human weight caused by rising BMI and height on future calorie...

With the modernization of global agri-food systems, the role of contract farming is increasing. This also involves smallholder farmers in developing countries. While previous studies have looked at economic impacts of contract schemes on smallholder farmers, little is known about farmers'...

According to advocates, eco-certification can improve developing country farmers' environmental and economic performance. However, these notional benefits can be undercut by self-selection: the tendency of relatively wealthy farmers already meeting eco-certification standards to...

In many developing countries, supermarkets are expanding rapidly. This also affects farmers’ marketing options. Previous studies have analyzed welfare effects for smallholders with crosssection data. Here, we use panel data and a differencing approach to study supply chain dynamics and better...