Agricultural Markets and Risks : Management of the Latter, Not the Former

Varangis, Panos ; Larson, Donald ; Anderson, Jack R.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL MARKETS;    RISK MANAGEMENT;    INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK;    COMMODITY MARKETS;    TRADE CONTROLS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2793
RP-ID  :  WPS2793

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The authors review the historicalrelationship between the work of applied economists, andpolicymakers, and the institutions that came to characterizethe commodity, and risk markets of the 1980s. Theseinstitutions were a response to the harmful consequences ofcommodity market volatility, and declining terms of trade.But the chosen policies, and instruments relied on marketinterventions, to directly affect prices, or thedistribution of prices in domestic, and internationalmarkets. For practical, and more fundamental reasons, thisapproach failed. The authors next discuss how a growing bodyof work, contributed to a change in thinking that movedpolicy away from stabilization goals, toward policies thatemphasized the management of risks. They distinguish betweenthe macroeconomic effects of volatile commodity markets, andthe consequences for businesses, and households. The authorsargue that both sets of problems remain importantdevelopment issues, but that appropriate policy instrumentsare largely separate. Nonetheless, because governments,households, and firms must all respond to a wide range ofsources of risk, they emphasize the role for an integratedpolicy by government. Increasingly, alternative approacheshave come to rely on market-based instruments. Suchapproaches accept the market view of relative prices asimmutable, but address directly the negative consequences ofvolatility. As traditional risk markets (such as futures andinsurance markets) expand, and new parametric marketsemerge, the practicality of applying market-basedinstruments to traditional risk, and development problemsincreases. The authors show the change in approaches torisk, and the reliance on old, and new market instruments,with new, and sometimes experimental programs, with specialemphasis on programs at the World Bank.