Using Qatar as a case study, we exploit a novel micro-data set for 102 raw agricultural imported commodities on a shipment-by-shipment basis over the period January 1, 2005 to June 30, 2010. The data comprise over half a million individual observations, with a very rich set of characteristic...

Background: Although the food crisis of 2007/2008 was a global one, arid countries, particularly those in the Arab region, were especially hard hit. Many subsequent policy prescriptions for food security emanated from multilateral organizations, NGOs and the countries themselves. While still...