Rice production in Africa has tended to be low-yielding, geographically dispersed, and uncompetitive against low-cost Asian imports, even when protected by high freight costs and substantial trade barriers. Skyrocketing prices in world markets in 2007-08 were a shock to African consumers,...

This paper analyzes price formation on the world's rice market using simple supply and demand models as a start, but moving to "supply of storage" models - a staple of commodity-market analysis for more than half a century - to explain hoarding behavior and its subsequent impact on prices. The...

A powerful historical pathway of structural transformation is experienced by all successful developing countries, and this Working Paper presents the results of new empirical analysis of the process. Making sure the poor are connected to both the structural transformation and to the policy...