Promoting participation of agricultural households in the milk market: evidence from northern Cote d’Ivoire

Increased participation in agricultural markets may alleviate poverty among rural households in Africa. Thus, understanding the determinants of market participation is important for the design and evaluation of development policies. The study described in this brief makes an institutional analysis of dairy markets and evaluates determinants of dairy market participation by agricultural households in Côte d’Ivoire. Results can be used to draw policy recommendations that take into account a larger population of agricultural households. For example, the implications of higher market prices or lower transactions costs can be evaluated for not only the volume of marketed surplus from existing cattle owners, but also for the propensity of rural households more broadly to adopt livestock. The analysis of rural dairy markets in Côte d’Ivoire also represents a rare look at market participation in West Africa. Market participation has been the focus of several economic studies in East Africa, but very few analyses address the issue of participation in dairy markets in West Africa. Thus, this study provides an empirical analysis of the performance of the rural dairy market in Côte d’Ivoire and derives some implications for public policy in the design and evaluation of dairy market development

Effects of Milk Marketing Order Regulation on the Share of Fluid-Grade Milk in the United States

The share of raw milk meeting fluid quality (Grade A) standards in the United States rose steadily through the latter half of the twentieth century, but a shrinking portion of that was used in fluid products. Grade A milk exceeds the quality standards for the manufactured products for which it has been increasingly used. We present an econometric model that exploits regional and temporal variation in policy implementation to identify the effect of marketing orders on the Grade A share of milk. Results support the hypothesis that marketing orders significantly encouraged the growth in the Grade A share of milk. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

The Commodity Terms of Trade, Unit Roots, and Nonlinear Alternatives: A Smooth Transition Approach

This article extends the recent literature on the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis of a long-run decline in the relative prices of primary commodities. Our main innovation is testing for and estimating nonlinear alternatives to a secular deterioration. Specifically, we use bootstrap procedures to test the linear unit root model against models belonging to the family of smooth transition autoregressions (STARs) for twenty-four commodities, 1900–2003. In nineteen cases we reject the linear null at usual significance levels. In sixteen cases we are able to successfully fit STAR-type models. Simulation results show there is little support for the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis. Copyright 2009, Oxford University Press.