Cereal Import Demand in Developing Countries

Terrence S. Veeman, Maxine Sudol, Michele M. Veeman and Xiao-yuan Dong

No 197886, 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: The major determinants of cereal import demand in 7 4 less-developed countries (LDCs) were analysed using an econometric cross-sectional model. Key explanatory factors included the level of income and degree of urbanization, financial capacity proxies, and domestic grain supply variables. A major innovation involved the analysis of the impact of income distribution on LDC cereal import demand in 1986 and 1987 for a more restricted sample of 23 nations. These~ developing countries exhibit a greater than proportional increase in cereal imports due to an increase in the income share of the poorest 40 percent of their populations. The inclusion of regional slope and intercept dummies in the cereal import demand model also provides improved results. High levels of government debt appear to have inhibited cereal imports in nations in South America but not in Asia and Africa. In all three continental regions, particularly Africa, there is a positive relationship between food aid and cereal imports. The model predicts cereal imports more satisfactorily for nations in Asia and South America than for those in Africa. Finally, the results support the view that improvements in income distribution in developing nations would considerably stimulate cereal imports.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Demand and Price Analysis; International Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 8
Date: 1992
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/197886/files/a ... pers-1992-036_1_.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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaaeo6:197886

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.197886

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 1992 Occasional Paper Series No. 6 from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().