Trade Policy Options for a Food-Security Commodity in Southern Africa: A Case Study of Maize in Zambia

Paul W. Gallagher

Staff General Research Papers from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We examine the performance of maize import policy options in one of the poorest countries in Southern Africa. The results are shaped by unique features of Zambia’s maize market: production that is limited by risk and highly variable returns, and local marketing margins that increase with imports and limit consumer trade gains. Results suggest that the market-stabilizing protection with the variable import levy (VL) may improve welfare, compared free trade or the current tariff regime. The VL also redistributes benefits to farmers and rural residents and away from urban consumers. Tax revenues could be used to fund transportation improvements or an urban consumer subsidy. Also, we estimate that market-led improvements in transport infrastructure, which would be conducive to more open trade policies, may be 25 years away.

Keywords: Maize Policy; Zambia; Food Security; Variable Levy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr
Date: 2012-01-24
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.econ.iastate.edu/sites/default/files/pu ... 14830-2012-01-24.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:isu:genres:34830

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Staff General Research Papers from Iowa State University, Department of Economics
Address: Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Stephanie Bridges (). This e-mail address is bad, please contact .