The Economywide Impacts and Risks of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program

Channing Arndt, Karl Pauw and James Thurlow

No 169903, 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: We estimate the impact of Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Program using an economywide approach. We find potentially substantial net benefits with indirect benefits accounting for about two-fifths of total benefits. Due to these indirect benefits, the cutoff at which lower fertilizer yield response rates lead to net program losses is much lower than the value suggested by existing partial equilibrium evaluations. Benefits decline with domestic financing and real fertilizer prices increases. Abstracting from extreme events, Malawi’s program potentially generates double-dividends through higher and more drought-resilient yields. Overall, our results buttress arguments for patience and a focus on program efficiency improvements.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; International Development; Public Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/169903/files/Malawi-AAEA-Submit.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Economy-wide Impacts and Risks of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Program (2016)
Working Paper: The Economywide Impacts and Risks of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Programme (2014)
Working Paper: The Economy-wide Impacts and Risks of Malawi's Farm Input Subsidy Program (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea14:169903

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.169903

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