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From bad to worse: Poverty impacts of food availability responses to weather shocks

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  • Jawoo Koo
  • Abdullah Mamun
  • Will Martin

Abstract

Since Amartya Sen's famous work on Poverty and Famines, economists have understood that the impacts of food market shocks on the poor depend much more on their impacts on households’ incomes and access to food than on overall food availability, and that availability‐based policies frequently exacerbate adverse impacts on household welfare. Perhaps because household‐level impacts are not directly observable many policy makers have continued to rely on availability‐oriented policies such as export bans. In the Zambia case considered in this article, export bans imposed in response to an El Niño event appear to have greatly exacerbated the small increase in poverty resulting from the weather shock. The combination of household‐level data and crop models used in this article allows us to assess the impacts of weather and price shocks at the household level, and to evaluate the suitability of availability‐based policies for dealing with weather shocks. These analytical techniques can also help identify the households and regions adversely affected, and design policies to improve poor consumers’ access to food.

Suggested Citation

  • Jawoo Koo & Abdullah Mamun & Will Martin, 2021. "From bad to worse: Poverty impacts of food availability responses to weather shocks," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 52(5), pages 833-847, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:agecon:v:52:y:2021:i:5:p:833-847
    DOI: 10.1111/agec.12657
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    3. Anderson, Kym, 2022. "Trade-related food policies in a more volatile climate and trade environment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Kym Anderson, 2022. "Agriculture in a more uncertain global trade environment," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 563-579, July.
    5. Christine M. Sauer & Thomas Reardon & Nicole M. Mason, 2023. "The poor do not pay more: Evidence from Tanzanian consumer food expenditures controlling for the food environment," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(5), pages 638-661, September.
    6. Luis Fernando Melo‐Velandia & Camilo Andrés Orozco‐Vanegas & Daniel Parra‐Amado, 2022. "Extreme weather events and high Colombian food prices: A non‐stationary extreme value approach," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(S1), pages 21-40, November.
    7. Kym Anderson, 2021. "Food policy in a more volatile climate and trade environment," Departmental Working Papers 2021-25, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    8. Jayson Beckman & Noé J. Nava & Angelica S. Williams & Steven Zahniser, 2024. "Land competition and welfare effects from Mexico's proposal to ban genetically engineered corn," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(3), pages 1300-1325, May.
    9. César Salazar & Andrés Acuña‐Duarte & José Maria Gil, 2023. "Drought shocks and price adjustments in local food markets in Chile: Do product quality and marketing channel matter?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(3), pages 349-363, May.
    10. Xi He, 2022. "Political and economic determinants of export restrictions in the agricultural and food sector," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 53(3), pages 439-453, May.

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