What price food? : agricultural price policies in developing countries

The starting point of Paul Streeten's book is the dilemma, faced by policy makers in many developing countries: should the price of food be high, in order to stimulate production, or low, in order to prevent poor food buyers from starving? The author goes on to discuss the role of prices in the light of these and other objectives. 'It is the work of one of our wisest scholars on what I consider to be the key policy issue for economic development in the 1980s ... this provocative essay will be required reading for anyone working on agricultural price policy.' C. Peter Timmer 'It provides solid and practical guidance to scholars and decision-makers. It is lucid, balanced and, above all, useful.' Robert Klitgaard 'Paul Streeten is well known for his gift of explaining the pros and cons of difficult policy issues in a clear, simple and realistic way, appealing to policy-makers, students and the wider development community, as well as to academic colleagues. This gift is fully displayed in his new book, and readers are bound to emerge with a better awareness of the conflicts and policy reforms which are involved.' H.W. Singer Front Matter....Pages i-viii The Dilemma....Pages 1-4 Multiplicity of Objectives....Pages 5-7 Towards a Country and Crop Typology....Pages 8-10 What Are Price Policies?....Pages 11-13 Allocational Efficiency and Higher Food Production....Pages 14-28 Subsidies to Inputs....Pages 29-30 The Total Picture....Pages 31-34 Aggregate Growth....Pages 35-38 National Food Security and Food Aid....Pages 39-44 Price Stabilization....Pages 45-52 Export Crops v. Food for Domestic Consumption....Pages 53-59 Incoine Distribution and Poverty....Pages 60-65 Protecting the Poor in the Transition....Pages 66-70 Small Farmers and Employment....Pages 71-73 Rural-Urban Migration....Pages 74-76 The Politics of Food Prices....Pages 77-84 The Budgetary Constraint....Pages 85-87 The Balance of Payments Constraint....Pages 88-92 International Implications....Pages 93-95 The Wider Issues of Hunger and Malnutrition....Pages 96-99 Recommendations....Pages 100-102 Research Needs....Pages 103-104 Statistical Requirements....Pages 105-105 Summary and Conclusions....Pages 106-106 Back Matter....Pages 107-127 Paul Streeten ; Foreword By Michael Lipton. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 107-119).