Food commodity price changes and consumer welfare in Bangladesh: Valuable lessons for today |
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Authors: | Kazi Tamim Rahman Aleksan Shanoyan Vardges Hovhannisyan |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Agricultural Economics, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur, Bangladesh;2. Department of Agricultural Economics, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA;3. Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA |
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Abstract: | The recent rise in global food prices threatens many countries worldwide, especially the vulnerable populations. Viable coping strategies can only be designed based on the important policy lessons learned from the experiences of these countries in confronting the similar shocks of 2007–2011. However, the disproportionate effects of these events and the impacts of policy responses remain largely unexplored. We examine the impact of a food price surge and the effectiveness of various mitigating policies in Bangladesh, one of the most populous, densely populated countries in the world that is plagued by poverty. Specifically, we combine individual-level expenditure survey data with recent advances in consumer theory to examine the welfare consequences across income groups and geographic areas of the country over 2000–2016. Our empirical findings lend support to the hypothesis that the brunt of the price surge was borne by relatively less affluent and rural households, and government poverty alleviation programmes were largely ineffective. |
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Keywords: | consumer welfare food demand in Bangladesh government poverty alleviation programmes impact of food price increase LA-EASI model |
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