COVID‐19 and food prices in sub‐Saharan Africa

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) outbreak on prices of maize, sorghum, imported rice and local rice in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). We estimated dynamic panel data models with controls for macroeconomic setting using general method of moments estimation. The study found that the COVID‐19 outbreak led to increases in food prices of the sampled countries. Restrictions on movements or lockdowns in the wake of COVID‐19 was associated with an increase in the price of maize only. We also found that exchange rate, inflation and crude oil prices exerted a detrimental effect on food prices. We recommend that governments of SSA countries invest in infrastructure that improves efficiencies in the food supply chain during pandemics. Providing adequate support to industries in the value chain will also improve food availability and food price stability post‐COVID‐19.

Flights‐to‐and‐from‐Quality with Islamic and Conventional Bonds in the COVID‐19 Pandemic Era: ICEEMDAN‐Based Transfer Entropy

“…Using the chain rule on the symbolic encoding, conditional probabilities may be expressed as proportions of joint probability. Consequently, the probabilities in equations ( 7) and ( 9) may (1) [n]) (2) [n]) (1) [n])) (2) [n])) (2) [n])…”

“…e global economy has been severely impacted since the World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 pandemic a global health emergency. e supply of staple foods declined [1], sales fell, consumers altered their habits, output was cut, corporations were in major financial constraints, and global unemployment rates rose [2]. Such drastic changes in the global economy and business are expected to have an impact on equities as well as alternative investments.…”

“…Such drastic changes in the global economy and business are expected to have an impact on equities as well as alternative investments. e objective of several firms within industries like tourism [3], energy and communication [4], food and hospitality [1], etc., had to be altered; instead of the regular shareholder wealth maximisation, they rather aimed to "survive" the havoc brought to business operations by the pandemic. Investors have as well been led to rebalance their portfolios and amend their investment plans [5,6].…”

COVID-19 and agri-food value chain: a systematic review and bibliometric mapping

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