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Asymmetric Information and Middleman Margins: An Experiment with West Bengal Potato Farmers

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  • Sandip Mitra
  • Dilip Mookherjee
  • Maximo Torero
  • Sujata Visaria

Abstract

A study middleman margins, trading mechanisms and the role of asymmetric information about prices between potato farmers and local trade intermediaries, in West Bengal, India is conducted. Farmers in randomly chosen villages were provided daily information on prices in neighboring wholesale markets where the traders re-sell the potatoes. [BREAD Working Paper No. 401].

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  • Sandip Mitra & Dilip Mookherjee & Maximo Torero & Sujata Visaria, 2013. "Asymmetric Information and Middleman Margins: An Experiment with West Bengal Potato Farmers," Working Papers id:5545, eSocialSciences.
    • Handle: RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:5545
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    2. Negi, Digvijay S. & Birthal, Pratap S. & Roy, Devesh & Khan, Md. Tajuddin, 2018. "Farmers’ choice of market channels and producer prices in India: Role of transportation and communication networks," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 106-121.
    3. Nakasone, Eduardo, 2013. "The Role of Price Information in Agricultural Markets: Experimental Evidence from Rural Peru," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150418, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Maitra, Pushkar & Mitra, Sandip & Mookherjee, Dilip & Motta, Alberto & Visaria, Sujata, 2017. "Financing smallholder agriculture: An experiment with agent-intermediated microloans in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 306-337.
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    6. Nancy H. Chau & Hideaki Goto & Ravi Kanbur, 2016. "Middlemen, fair traders, and poverty," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(1), pages 81-108, March.
    7. Swati Dhingra, 2016. "Piggy-Back Exporting, Intermediation, and the Distributional Gains from Trade in Agricultural Markets," 2016 Meeting Papers 712, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Jean-Philippe Berrou & François Combarnous & Thomas Eekhout, 2017. "Les TIC : une réponse au défi du développement des micro et petites entreprises informelles en Afrique sub-saharienne ?," Working Papers hal-02148324, HAL.
    9. Songsermsawas, Tisorn & Baylis, Kathy & Chhatre, Ashwini & Michelson, Hope & Prasanna, Satya, 2015. "Friends or traders? Do social networks explain the use of market mechanisms by farmers in India," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211206, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Melissa Hidrobo & Giordano Palloni & Daniel O. Gilligan & Jenny C. Aker & Natasha Ledlie, 2022. "Paying for Digital Information: Assessing Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for a Digital Agriculture and Nutrition Service in Ghana," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1367-1402.
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