The structural determinants of the food crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America
Abstract
The study examined the causes of two policies (food imports and currency overvaluation) which adversely affect food production in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Hypotheses were derived from the Lipton-Bates rational choice and the Amin-de Janvry version of world system theories. Multiple regression analysis of 34 Sub-Saharan African and 20 Latin American countries suggested similarities as well as major differences between the two regions in terms of the causes of cheap food policies. The two theoretical perspectives have different strengths in their application to the two regions. The findings indicate that: (1) the Lipton-Bates rational choice perspective better fits Sub-Saharan Africa than Latin America. The absolute size of the urban population is not apparently itself critical, but instead interacts with its concentration. When the urban population is large and concentrated in a single city, the pressure to cheapen food is apparently much greater and difficult to resist than when it is not concentrated. In Latin America this pattern was observed in smaller, relatively nonurbanized countries; (2) the Amin-de Janvry perspective relating multinational capital penetration and the implementation of cheap food policies is supported in both regions, but the effect is much stronger in Latin America.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Marshall, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Social structure|Welfare
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