Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Emergence of Parallel Markets in a Transition Economy: The Case of Mozambique |
Authors: | Sahn, David E. Desai, Jaikishan |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | Food Policy |
Volume: | 20 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | April |
Pages: | 83-98 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Mozambique |
Subjects: | poverty food policy food market illicit trade Economics and Trade Health and Nutrition |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-9192(95)00002-V |
Abstract: | Despite the emergent consensus on moving to liberalize food marketing, there remains a concern that such reforms will have adverse consequences for some of the poor. This paper, which is based on data from a survey held in 1991-1992, explores the implications of product market liberalization for the poor in Maputo (Mozambique), the major urban area served by the food rationing system. In examining State disengagement from food marketing, it also explores the consequence of rationing: the emergence of parallel markets for the subsidized good. In order to understand the distributional implications of market liberalization that eliminates rationing and results in prices of traded goods being determined by border prices, it also focuses on the question of who has access to official prices instead of relying on parallel markets. The results indicate that market liberalization, including eliminating rationing, will at worst be neutral for the poor, and more likely be beneficial since the treasury will capture the rents associated with rationing that presently accrue to traders and parastatals. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |