Consensus, Institutions, and Supply Response : The Political Economy of Agricultural Reforms in Sub-Saharan Africa

Aksoy, Ataman ; Onal, Anil

关键词: AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES;    AGRICULTURAL HOUSEHOLDS;    AGRICULTURAL MARKETING;    AGRICULTURAL MARKETS;    AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5782
RP-ID  :  WPS5782

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

During the late 1980s and the 1990s,most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa implementedagricultural policy reforms, along with national politicaland economic reforms. The agricultural reforms focused onopening up processing and marketing activities to increasedcompetition and eliminating export taxes and restrictions toimprove producer incentives. In eight of ninecountry/commodity case studies analyzed in this paper,output responded positively in the short run to the reforms.In many cases, however, the initial supply response was notsustained in the face of subsequent shocks. The studiessuggest that stakeholder consensus on the distribution ofsector-specific rents is a key variable affecting thesustainability of supply responses. Agricultural sectorreforms lead to large changes in income distribution. Thegreater the acceptance of the distribution of rentsfollowing the reforms, the better sectors are able toaccommodate subsequent shocks. In cases where the initialconsensus on the distribution of rents is weak, shocks leadto reform reversals in some cases or an inability to designnecessary support institutions in others. The diversity inoutcomes across similar products and countries suggests itis possible to achieve sector and local level results thatdiffer from national ones.