Food price stabilization: theory and lessons from experience

IF 6 1区经济学 Q1 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS & POLICY

Food Policy Pub Date : 2025-09-08 DOI:10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102945

Paul Dorosh, Nicholas Minot, Shahidur Rashid

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Many countries pursue food price stabilization through public grain reserves (also called buffer stocks or strategic grain reserves) or trade policy. Views of the economics profession on food price stabilization have evolved over time, however, with increased skepticism about economic planning and government market interventions since the mid-1980s. Nonetheless, recent spikes in international commodity prices during the Covid-19 pandemic and at the start of the war in Ukraine have stimulated another wave of interest in establishing or expanding strategic grain reserves and food-based safety net programs.

This article reviews the experience with food price stabilization, focusing on public grain reserves and trade policy. We summarize research on the theory of price stabilization and the challenges of stabilizing food prices in the face of volatile international prices, speculative attacks, imperfect information, and political interference. We also include empirical studies of how these programs function in seven countries. The review concludes with a summary of key lessons from country experiences and suggestions for further research.

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粮食价格稳定：理论与经验教训

许多国家通过公共粮食储备（也称为缓冲储备或战略粮食储备）或贸易政策来实现粮食价格稳定。然而，经济学专业人士对食品价格稳定的看法随着时间的推移而演变，自20世纪80年代中期以来，对经济计划和政府市场干预的怀疑日益增加。尽管如此，最近在2019冠状病毒病大流行期间和乌克兰战争开始时，国际商品价格飙升，再次激发了人们对建立或扩大战略粮食储备和粮食安全网计划的兴趣。本文回顾了粮食价格稳定的经验，重点是公共粮食储备和贸易政策。我们总结了价格稳定理论的研究，以及在国际价格波动、投机攻击、不完全信息和政治干预的情况下稳定食品价格的挑战。我们还包括对这些项目在七个国家如何运作的实证研究。审查最后总结了各国经验的主要教训和对进一步研究的建议。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Food Policy 管理科学-农业经济与政策

CiteScore

11.40

自引率

4.60%

发文量

128

审稿时长

62 days

期刊介绍： Food Policy is a multidisciplinary journal publishing original research and novel evidence on issues in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies for the food sector in developing, transition, and advanced economies. Our main focus is on the economic and social aspect of food policy, and we prioritize empirical studies informing international food policy debates. Provided that articles make a clear and explicit contribution to food policy debates of international interest, we consider papers from any of the social sciences. Papers from other disciplines (e.g., law) will be considered only if they provide a key policy contribution, and are written in a style which is accessible to a social science readership.