Replaced with revised version of paper 08/04/09.

This paper develops a conceptual model of farmers’ production decisions in the context of dual output marketing channels (e.g., government and private sector) when prices at harvest time and the availability of one of the channels are unknown at planting time. It then uses the operationalized...

Regional integration through trade is recognized as one way to foster economic growth and poverty reduction. This paper uses the gravity model and 11-year panel data (1996-2006) on Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries to study Zambia’s regional agricultural trade...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/24/09.

Marketing boards and strategic reserves have re-emerged over the last decade as significant actors in grain markets in eastern and southern Africa, yet there is little empirical research regarding how their activities affect smallholder behavior. This paper uses panel survey data from 1997-2007...

This study uses three waves of nationally representative household-level panel data from Malawi to estimate how receiving an additional kilogram of subsidize fertilizer affects maize production and the value of total crop output across the distribution of smallholder farm households. We use...

This paper determines the effect of market reform and price decontrol on the size of maize milling/retail margins in South Africa. Regression models of monthly milling/retail margins are run over the period May 1976 to September 2003. To assess the robustness of our findings, we estimate several...

Using a two-year panel of 1,422 Kenyan households surveyed in 1997 and 2000, we measure how working-age adult mortality affects rural households= size and composition, crop production, asset levels, and off-farm income. First, the paper uses adult mortality rates from available data on an...

Multi-year nationwide survey data is used to estimate maize yield response functions and determine profitability of fertilizer use by small-scale farmers in Zambia. There has been a dearth of empirical studies on economics of fertilization in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper we...