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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Consumer Response to Maize Market Liberalization in Urban Kenya |
Authors: | Jayne, Thomas S. Argwings-Kodhek, Gem |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Food Policy |
Volume: | 22 |
Issue: | 5 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 447-458 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Kenya |
Subjects: | household budget economic policy marketing maize Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade Urbanization and Migration |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-9192(97)00034-1 |
Abstract: | The elimination of consumer food subsidies associated with structural adjustment in Africa has been widely thought to exacerbate food insecurity for low-income consumers. This article determines how urban maize consumption and expenditure patterns have responded to the liberalization of the maize and maize meal markets in Kenya. The paper decomposes changes in maize meal prices attributable to changes in maize grain prices and maize milling margins. Results are obtained through two random household surveys in Nairobi, the first conducted before (1993) and the second after (1995) liberalization. The main finding of the study is that maize market liberalization has conferred substantial benefits to urban consumers. Results also indicate that the former consumer subsidies conferred through the official marketing channel were untargeted and actually inversely related to household income. The subsidies on sifted meal also served to entrench a noncompetitive market structure that inhibited the development of a lower-cost informal milling system. These findings are consistent with research results from other eastern and southern African countries showing that the negative effects of eliminating food subsidies in the State marketing system have been largely compensated by relaxing controls on private grain trade. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |