Anatomy of a Crisis

Anatomy of a Crisis PDF Author: Shenggen Fan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Although the potential causes and consequences of recent increases in international food prices have attracted widespread attention, many existing appraisals are superficial and/or piecemeal. This paper attempts to provide a more comprehensive review of these issues based on the best and most recent research, and includes fresh theoretical and empirical analysis. We first analyze the causes of the current crisis by considering how well standard explanations hold up against relevant economic theory and important stylized facts. Some explanations, especially rising oil prices, the depreciation of the US dollar, biofuel demand, and some commodity-specific explanations, hold up much better than some others. We then provide an appraisal of the likely macro- and microeconomic impacts of the crisis in developing countries. We observe a large gap in the effects of macro and micro factors, and note that when these factors are used to identify the most vulnerable countries, the results often point in different directions. We conclude with a brief discussion of what ought to be learned from this crisis.

Anatomy of a Crisis

Anatomy of a Crisis PDF Author: Shenggen Fan
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Although the potential causes and consequences of recent increases in international food prices have attracted widespread attention, many existing appraisals are superficial and/or piecemeal. This paper attempts to provide a more comprehensive review of these issues based on the best and most recent research, and includes fresh theoretical and empirical analysis. We first analyze the causes of the current crisis by considering how well standard explanations hold up against relevant economic theory and important stylized facts. Some explanations, especially rising oil prices, the depreciation of the US dollar, biofuel demand, and some commodity-specific explanations, hold up much better than some others. We then provide an appraisal of the likely macro- and microeconomic impacts of the crisis in developing countries. We observe a large gap in the effects of macro and micro factors, and note that when these factors are used to identify the most vulnerable countries, the results often point in different directions. We conclude with a brief discussion of what ought to be learned from this crisis.

Anatomy of a Crisis: The Causes and Consequences of Surging Food Prices

Anatomy of a Crisis: The Causes and Consequences of Surging Food Prices PDF Author: Derek Headey and Shenggen Fan
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description


The food crisis of 2008

The food crisis of 2008 PDF Author: Hovland, Ingeborg
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
This paper aims to document IFPRI’s communications activities during the recent food crisis which peaked in mid-2008. IFPRI’s communications activities during the food crisis were somewhat unusual for the Institute. The communications campaign included IFPRI’s usual avenues, and built on IFPRI’s existing place in the global food policy system, but was unusual in its concerted coordination across all divisions of the Institute, the relatively low number of publications and unusually high engagement with the media, as well as a high number of face-to-face presentations and meetings. All in all the campaign, which arose in response to the policy window that opened up in early and mid-2008, was considered particularly effective, and IFPRI earned the position as one of the “thought leaders” during the crisis.

Food Price Policy in an Era of Market Instability

Food Price Policy in an Era of Market Instability PDF Author: Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Publisher: Oxford University Press (UK)
ISBN: 0198718578
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Since 2006, global food prices have fluctuated greatly around an increasing trend and price spikes were observed for key food commodities such as rice, wheat, and maize.

Intra-household Resource Allocation when Food Prices Soar: Impacts on Child Growth in Indonesia

Intra-household Resource Allocation when Food Prices Soar: Impacts on Child Growth in Indonesia PDF Author: Futoshi Yamauchi
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
An unanticipated spike in food prices can increase malnutrition among the poor with lasting consequences, but parents can protect the most vulnerable within the family by distributing scarce food to minimize adverse impacts. To find evidence of this strategy, we use anthropometric and consumption data from Indonesia, collected before and after the 2007/08 food price crisis. Our results indicate that soaring food prices had a significant and uneven impact on growth among children. Using household fixed effects, we find that the negative impact was significantly larger among larger children, as measured by the initial height z-score. We find that children with low height z-scores at the start of the crisis gained ground relative to their peers during the crisis, consistent with food-resource allocations in their favor. The findings remain robust when controlling for possible differential impacts by gender, family size and food producer status. We conclude that the food price crises had negative long-term impacts on children, and that parental behavior protected the most vulnerable. For Indonesian policy makers, our results indicate that safeguarding family food security should be a priority when targeting specific groups of children is difficult.

Biodiesel

Biodiesel PDF Author: Gisela Montero
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 9533077840
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
This book entitled "Biodiesel: Quality, Emissions and By-products" covers topics related to biodiesel quality, performance of combustion engines that use biodiesel and the emissions they generate. New routes to determinate biodiesel properties are proposed and the process how the raw material source, impurities and production practices can affect the quality of the biodiesel is analyzed. In relation to the utilization of biofuel, the performance of combustion engines fuelled by biodiesel and biodiesels blends are evaluated. The applications of glycerol, a byproduct of the biodiesel production process as a feedstock for biotechnological processes, and a key compound of the biorefinery of the future is also emphasized.

The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Rural Policy

The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Rural Policy PDF Author: Matteo Vittuari
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429950802
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 707

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Book Description
This volume represents the result of almost two decades of trans-Atlantic collaborative development of a policy research paradigm, the International Comparative Rural Policy Studies program. Over this period dozens of scientists from different disciplines but with a common interest in rural issues and policy have collaboratively studied the policies in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world. A core element of the book is the idea and practice of comparative research and analysis – what can be learned from comparisons, how and why policies vary in different contexts, and what lessons might or might not be “transferable” across borders. It provides skills for the use of comparative methods as important tools to analyze the functioning of strategies and specific policy interventions in different contexts and a holistic approach for the management of resources in rural regions. It promotes innovation as a tool to valorize endogenous resources and empower local communities and offers case studies of rural policy in specific contexts. The book largely adopts a territorial approach to rural policy. This means the book is more interested in rural regions, their people and economies, and in the policies that affect them, than in rural sectors, and sectoral policies per se. The audience of the book is by definition international and includes students attending courses in agricultural and rural policy, rural and regional studies, and natural resource management; lecturers seeking course material and case studies to present to their students in any of the courses listed above; professionals working in the field of rural policy; policy-makers and civil servants at different levels seeking tools to better understand rural policy both at the local and global scale and to better recognize and comprehend how to transfer best practices.

The Intellectual Property and Food Project

The Intellectual Property and Food Project PDF Author: Charles Lawson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317027361
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
The relationship between intellectual property and food affects the production and availability of food by regulating dealings in products, processes, innovations, information and data. With increasingly intricate relations between international and domestic law, as well as practices and conventions, intellectual property and food interact in many different ways. This volume is a timely consideration and assessment of some of the more contentious and complex issues found in this relationship, such as genetic technology, public research and food security, socio-economic factors and the root cause of poverty and patent-busting. The contributions are from leading scholars in this emerging field and each chapter foregrounds some of the key developments in the area, exploring historical, doctrinal and theoretical issues in the field while at the same time developing new ideas and perspectives around intellectual property and food. The collection will be a useful resource in leading further discussion and debate about intellectual property law and food.

Surviving the Global Financial and Economic Downturn

Surviving the Global Financial and Economic Downturn PDF Author: Hossein Jalilian
Publisher: Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
ISBN: 9814519669
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
In terms of magnitude of impact, the global financial and economic downturn was the worst of the three crises. That it caused the first ever growth contraction in the post-conflict period was sufficient rationale for the series of studies that substantiate this book. Like the two shocks that preceded it however, the way it impacted on Cambodia cannot be understood in isolation from the overall post-conflict milieu. The thesis here is not that endogenous factors caused the crisis. It is simply that endogenous factors shaped the impact of the crisis and a historical, as opposed to a static, analysis better illuminates the nature of the impact. This book is an in-depth comprehensive examination of the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on Cambodia. It probes into the effects of the shock at macro, sectoral and micro levels using qualitative and quantitative techniques.

The Long Road to Sustainability

The Long Road to Sustainability PDF Author: Alexander Gillespie
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192551574
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
For the last few thousand years, humanity has struggled to achieve sustainable development. Gillespie sees the problem as multi-faceted: a three legged stool of economic, social, and environmental conundrums have stalled the quest for the long term viability of both our species and the ecosystems in which we reside. Gillespie moves from the low life expectancy, excessive deforestation, and wetland drainage of the medieval period, through the species loss, coal burning, free trade, and poor waste management of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and to the more recent concerns of climate change, unsustainable fisheries, and chemical pollutants. By delivering a comprehensive examination of human survival over the past millennium, Gillespie illustrates that the challenges we face are not new - that we now have the means to counter them, is.