IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-08q00019.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do the Malthusian fears ever die? A note on the recent increase in food prices

Author

Listed:
  • Argentino Pessoa

    (Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto)

Abstract

Beginning with a snapshot of the recent raise in food prices, the present paper put in question the hypothesis of it be a response to the near end of resources. Examining some medium and long-run factors that explain the evolution of food production, with special focus on cereals, using data of the World Bank for the last 45 years, and a regression for a cross-section of 106 countries, we show that: a) the capacity to feed a growing population has been associated to a sustained increase in productivity, measured by the cereal yields b) the increase in cereal yields is negatively associated to the increase in land under cereal production c) there is large room to go on increasing cereal production and productivity in low and middle-income countries, profiting from the productivity gap that differentiate them from the high-income countries. So, the main conclusion is that the Limits to Grow' perspective and the associated Malthusian fears have no empirical support.

Suggested Citation

  • Argentino Pessoa, 2008. "Do the Malthusian fears ever die? A note on the recent increase in food prices," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 17(22), pages 1-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-08q00019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/pubs/EB/2008/Volume17/EB-08Q00019A.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ivanic, Maros & Martin, Will, 2008. "Implications of higher global food prices for poverty in low-income countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4594, The World Bank.
    2. Argentino Pessoa, 2008. "Public-private partnerships in developing countries: are infrastructures responding to the new ODA strategy?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(3), pages 311-325.
    3. Romer, Paul, 1993. "Idea gaps and object gaps in economic development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 543-573, December.
    4. Mitchell, Donald, 2008. "A note on rising food prices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4682, The World Bank.
    5. Argentino Pessoa, 2008. "Public-Private Sector Partnerships In Developing Countries: Are Infrastructures Responding To The New Oda Strategy," FEP Working Papers 266, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:17:y:2008:i:22:p:1-11 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Hoekman, Bernard & Martin, Will & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2010. "Conclude Doha: it matters!," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(3), pages 505-530, July.
    3. Manisha Verma & Anurag Priyadarshee, 2015. "Improving Service Delivery through State–Citizen Partnership: The Case of the Ahmedabad Urban Transport System," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 321-336, June.
    4. Paul Smoke, 2019. "Improving Subnational Government Development Finance in Emerging and Developing Economies: Towards a Strategic Approach," Working Papers id:13007, eSocialSciences.
    5. Luc Christiaensen, 2009. "Revisiting the Global Food Architecture. Lessons from the 2008 Food Crisis," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(3), pages 3345-3361.
    6. Derek Headey & Sangeetha Malaiyandi & Shenggen Fan, 2010. "Navigating the perfect storm: reflections on the food, energy, and financial crises," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 41(s1), pages 217-228, November.
    7. Craig Sugden, 2009. "Responding to High Commodity Prices," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 23(1), pages 79-105, May.
    8. Zezza, Alberto & Davis, Benjamin & Azzarri, Carlo & Covarrubias, Katia & Tasciotti, Luca & Anríquez, Gustavo, 2008. "The impact of rising food prices on the poor," ESA Working Papers 289027, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Agricultural Development Economics Division (ESA).
    9. Yamauchi, Futoshi & Larson, Donald F., 2019. "Long-term impacts of an unanticipated spike in food prices on child growth in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 330-343.
    10. Luc Christiaensen, 2009. "Revisiting the Global Food Architecture. Lessons from the 2008 Food Crisis," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(3), pages 3345-3361.
    11. Giray GOZGOR & Baris KABLAMACI, 2014. "The linkage between oil and agricultural commodity prices in the light of the perceived global risk," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 60(7), pages 332-342.
    12. Michiel Keyzer & Max Merbis & Roelf Voortman, 2008. "The Biofuel Controversy," De Economist, Springer, vol. 156(4), pages 507-527, December.
    13. Francesco Caracciolo & Fabio Santeramo, 2013. "Price Trends and Income Inequalities: Will Sub-Saharan Africa Reduce the Gap?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 25(1), pages 42-54.
    14. José Cuesta & Suzanne Duryea & Fidel Jaramillo & Marcos Robles, 2010. "Distributive impacts of the food price crisis in the Andean region," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(7), pages 846-865.
    15. Pal, Debdatta & Mitra, Subrata K., 2017. "Time-frequency contained co-movement of crude oil and world food prices: A wavelet-based analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 230-239.
    16. Ana Maria Fuertes Eugenio, 2012. "Policy failures and food crises in less developed countries," Chapters, in: Roberta Capello & Tomaz Ponce Dentinho (ed.), Networks, Space and Competitiveness, chapter 10, pages 248-275, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Bonfim, Leandro R.C. & Segatto, Andréa P. & Gonçalves, Sandro A., 2018. "A conical-helix model of technology transfer and public-private partnerships for technological development in Brazilian public health," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 110-123.
    18. Lafang Wang & Wenjing Duan & Dan Qu & Shaojun Wang, 2018. "What matters for global food price volatility?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(4), pages 1549-1572, June.
    19. Maria S. Basílio, 2014. "The Determinants of Multilateral Development Banks’ Participation in Infrastructure Projects," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 6(2), pages 83-110, December.
    20. Ana Elena IOSIF, 2014. "Public - private interdependence: an effective tool in water supply services," EuroEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 2(33), pages 19-35, November.
    21. Abbott, Philip C. & Hurt, Christopher & Tyner, Wallace E., 2011. "What’s Driving Food Prices in 2011?," Issue Reports 112927, Farm Foundation.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q0 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-08q00019. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.