This study determines the responsiveness of demand for meat to variations in prices and incomes on the basis of food demand data for the time period between 1980 to 2001 using an Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model. These findings are reasonable given the position that beef holds as the dominant and traditional meat in Nigeria. These elasticities also imply that beef and chicken are luxury goods, while other fish and demersal fish are normal goods for Nigeria households consistent with the findings of previous studies. With the exception of some cross-price elasticities, the majority of the price elasticities exhibit the expected signs and magnitudes. This indicates that demand for beef and other meat Nigeria is very price elastic. In general, the results suggest that own-prices as well as incomes are the predominant factors determining consumer choice and meat consumption patterns in Nigeria rather than relative prices.
Wide fluctuations in the price of an agricultural product are often correlated with inelasticity of supply and/or demand for the product. The issue of whether such fluctuations are desirable or undesirable for cocoa producing countries has still to be settled. Among those who believe that price fluctuations are undesirable and should be reduced, there are divergent opinions as to how these fluctuations should be reduced. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of price stabilization on the economic welfare of producers and consumers of Ghana cocoa. Hence this study will estimate supply and demand functions for Ghana cocoa. Parameter estimates will then be used to predict social welfare gains and losses from increased cocoa price stabilization. On the demand side an increase in disposable income influences consumers positively in buying cocoa products. On the producer supply side, independent variable explained 86.5 percent of the variations in supply of cocoa by farmers. Welfare gains measured in this study do not account for additional storage costs that would be incurred by Ghana Marketing Board to make complete prices stabilization operational. Given rather unstable supply and demand functions for Ghana cocoa as indicated by their respective variances, the buffer inventory required by the Ghana Marketing Board to stabilize Ghana cocoa prices would likely be large, so is the resource cost of maintaining that buffer inventory. With respect to welfare implications, this study supports the argument that price stabilization will benefit Ghana cocoa farmers as well as consumers. Society as a whole benefits by the net gain in welfare based on Massels model.
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