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Good sense on food prices
It seems to me odd to fault the World Bank for advice some 15 years ago to eliminate import protection--so that domestic prices could come down at the time--while at the same time complaining about high prices now, even with the benefit of hindsight. If developing countries had all kept their import protection, the global supply of food would have been lower today, not higher. (That is because import protection would have led global production to be reallocated from efficient exporters to inefficient importers.) If you are for self-sufficiency, you must be willing to live with high prices.
No, that's not me, that's from Dani Rodrik.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 16, 2008 at 12:33 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink
Comments
** paging Raj Patel **
Posted by: Luis Enrique at May 16, 2008 12:50:59 PM
If you are for self-sufficiency, you must be willing to live with high prices.
Which I say, emphatically, every time I encounter somebody talking about "energy independence". But those folks seem to think that having it will somehow lead to lower prices in their hypothetical future.
Posted by: Bartman at May 16, 2008 1:41:28 PM
bartman: "Which I say, emphatically, every time I encounter somebody talking about "energy independence"."
The same is true for "manufacturing independence" as well, isn't it? It just seems foolish to not allow consumers to take advantage of any lower cost good, regardless of the source.
Posted by: John Dewey at May 16, 2008 4:42:40 PM
I don't see it as a problem if countries decide to be independent in any area. As long as the citizens there see it to be beneficial for them, not to protect the vested interests in that area of the economy.
Free trade is great when there are no wars and you can reliably obtain what you need. But if there is a war and you have no food production locally, you're caught with your pants down.
We can balance these risks and benefits of course, but not if the government is beholden to special interests and is regularly used to further them. That seems to me to be the bigger problem and is certainly a massive issue in the United States.
Posted by: Alan Brown at May 18, 2008 6:19:05 PM
