International risk sharing for food staples

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bradford, Scott C.; Negi, Digvijay Singh; Ramaswami, Bharat
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University; Ashoka University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2022.102894
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Food markets; risk sharing; international trade; supply shocks

摘要

The global output of food staples is far more stable than most individual nations' outputs, but does this lead to consumption risk sharing? This paper applies tools from the risk sharing literature to address this question for rice, wheat, and maize, using a multilateral risk sharing model that, unlike the canonical model, accounts for trade costs. While the data show that optimal risk sharing does not occur, the wheat market comes closest to the idealized model. Our analysis also implies that both trade and storage play significant roles in smoothing domestic output shocks. Further, we find that risk sharing tends to rise with a nation's income.