Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in Sub-Saharan and North Africa

Abstract

This is a product of a research project on Distortions to Agricultural Incentives, under the leadership of Kym Anderson of the World Bank's Development Research Group.

Agricultural Transformation, Nutrition Transition and Food Policy in Africa: Preston Curves Reveal New Stylised Facts

“…To measure cross-country differences in food policy we begin with Consumer Tax Equivalent (CTE) estimates from the World Bank’s Distortions to Agricultural Incentives project, using data originally compiled for Africa by Anderson and Masters (2009). The CTE is defined as the percentage change in the wholesale price paid for each food item, relative to the price that would have prevailed if government policy permitted free international trade and a competitive domestic market.…”

Democratisation and the Political Incentives for Agricultural Policy in Africa

“…A major achievement of structural adjustment policies was the reduction in policy distortions that negatively affected the agricultural sector (Anderson and Masters, 2009). This means that such distortions are no longer the dominant agricultural-policy concern that they once were.…”

“…Since then, most countries have embarked on a process of democratisation (Bates and Block, 2009) and the burden of taxation has been greatly reduced (Anderson and Masters, 2009). However, reduced taxation was often not accompanied by additional public investment in the sector to enable smallholder producers to respond to the new market opportunities (Fan et al, 2009).…”

Crop improvement, adoption, and impact of improved varieties in food crops in sub-Saharan Africa

“…• Economic policy distortions: The nominal rate of assistance (NRA) to agriculture or the per cent deviation of producer prices from prices that would have prevailed without policy interventions (Anderson and Masters, 2009, with updates from Anderson and Nelgen, 2013). …”