Agriculture, Markets and Poverty - A Comparative Analysis of Laos and Cambodia

Raghav Gaiha, Md Azam, Samuel Annim and Katsushi Imai
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Raghav Gaiha: Economics, Australian National University, Australia

No DP2012-28, Discussion Paper Series from Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University

Abstract: Laos and Cambodia have been transitioning to a market-oriented policy regime. Both are agrarian economies with agriculture contributing about one-third of the GDP. We assess prospects of achieving MDG1 and centrality of agricultural growth in achieving this goal. As these are macro relationships, richer insights into determinants of poverty are obtained by detailed analyses of recent household surveys in Laos and Cambodia. Some of these insights relate to access to markets, returns to crops, education, land size, non-farm activities, ethnic affiliation, and rural infrastructure, with unavoidable variation due to differences in the coverage of the household surveys used. Another major theme studied for Cambodia is integration of farmers - especially smallholders - into markets. The focus is on barriers between large and smallholders-for example, transaction costs. An accelerated transition to a more market-oriented policy regime may promote not just a more efficient agriculture but also a more equitable outcome.

Keywords: Aagriculture; Poverty; MDG1; Smallholders; Markets; Transaction costs; Laos and Cambodia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H53 I32 N55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev and nep-sea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Agriculture, Markets and Poverty – A Comparative Analysis of Laos and Cambodia (2012)
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