This paper studies the implications of high food prices resulting from climate change on food security in small islands, using Mauritius as a case‐study. Climate change may adversely impact prices of agricultural commodities. The study derives and calculates the government costs and the welfare effects of an increase in the world price of rice on consumers in Mauritius. Using an equilibrium displacement model, this study finds that an increase in the price of rice by 35%, as predicted by the literature on climate change and rice prices, will result in an increase of 28.8% in government spending, representing the additional outlays to support the subsidy scheme for food security. Using 2012 as the baseline, the welfare analysis results suggest that consumer surplus for ration rice consumers increases by 626 million Mauritian Rupees (MUR) or US$18 million while consumer surplus decreases by MUR454 million (US$13 million) for basmati rice consumers.
China is the world’s largest importer of agricultural products. Stability of agricultural imports directly affects domestic food availability, and hence influences national food security. This study is important to gauge effects of uncertainty resulting from global and domestic economic policy changes on the stability component of food security in China. Though many studies have explored the determinants and consequences of Chinese agricultural trade, research focusing on stability of agricultural imports is lacking. To fill the gap, this study calculates duration length and survival probability of China’s agri-food imports, and estimates effects of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) on the stability. Results show that trade duration of the agri-food imports is 12.07 months in China. However, 51.69% of disrupted trade relationships would resume after 2 months and 92.68% of temporarily interrupted trade relationships return to the market after 12 months. Empirical estimations show that global EPU has a larger impact on the stability of agricultural imports than Chinese EPU. Although Chinese EPU has heterogeneous effects on imports of different agri-food products in China, global EPU does not. Stabilized domestic food price and improved domestic agricultural productivity would improve stability of the imports significantly. The study concludes that China’s agricultural imports are less dynamic than previous studies claimed. However, EPU significantly erodes the trade stability. To offset negative effects of EPU on the stability, government should pay more attention on stabilizing domestic food price volatility and increasing food productivity, and therefore improve food security in China.
Mauritius is classified as a high-income small island country. However, gender inequalities are still prevalent and therefore need to be addressed. This paper analyses the attempts made by the country to improve gender parity through the adoption of a national gender policy framework (NGPF) in 2008, using difference-in-differences with pooled cross-sectional data from Household Budget Surveys 2007, 2012 and 2017. The results indicate that no significant gender wage gap changes occurred in 2012 after controlling for human capital, industry, and occupation. On a longer run, the interaction of the gender and year variable was significant in 2017 only when controlling for industry and occupation. This study shows that the NGPF can help women climb the economic ladder within their occupation but does not help them increase their occupational prestige by moving to a higher-paying occupation. More focused policies with clear action plans, for instance, those that will promote the inclusion of women in high-level positions, will reduce the gender wage gap. Encouraging women to participate in the knowledge-based, high-income economy of Mauritius by overcoming the skills mismatch that pervades in sectors with fastest growth is a potential strategy for improving gender wage parity.
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