Is Aid for Trade Effective? A Quantile Regression Approach

This paper investigates whether Aid for Trade (AfT) improves export performance, i.e. does AfT lead to greater exports? Using panel data and panel quantile regression, our results suggest that overall AfT disbursements promote the export of goods and services mainly for the .50 and .75 quantiles. Our results also show that for some types of AfT this effect essentially vanishes at the lower tail of the conditional distribution of exports. Hence, countries that export more in volume are those benefiting most from AfT. We also investigate which types of AfT are effective. In particular, we find that aid used to build production capacity is effective. This type of aid is associated with higher exports for almost all quantiles, with the effect increasing at the upper tail of the conditional distribution. Aid used to build infrastructure is also found to affect exports at the upper tail of the distribution. In contrast, aid for trade policy and aid disbursed for general budget support (an untargeted type of aid) are not associated with greater export levels. This finding holds true irrespective of the quantile

National food security: a framework for public policy and international trade

This paper does not set out to redefine and re-explain the food security concept, but to look into the links between food security and international trade. First, we propose a conceptual framework to sum up the relationships between food security, international trade and public policies. Second, we check whether the widely used food security indicators are really suited to monitoring the impacts of government interventions and external trade shocks on the food security level. We use the Bonilla Index as our food security indicator throughout this analysis of the impact of national policies on food security

National food security: a framework for public policy and international trade

This paper does not set out to redefine and re-explain the food security concept, but to look into the links between food security and international trade. First, we propose a conceptual framework to sum up the relationships between food security, international trade and public policies. Second, we check whether the widely used food security indicators are really suited to monitoring the impacts of government interventions and external trade shocks on the food security level. We use the Bonilla Index as our food security indicator throughout this analysis of the impact of national policies on food security

Impact of domestic support and border measures for developing countries’ food security

Food security is a major concern, especially for developing countries where a large percentage of population lives in rural areas and where agricultural sector represents an important weight in their economy. Agricultural and food imports play a particular key role in terms of food security in low income countries. Indeed, dependency on imports for food may raise a problem for food security in particular in the case of sudden price increase which put up national food bill. The national state of food availability combining food imports and domestic food production thus constitutes some crucial information. Following Diaz-Bonilla et al. (2000), this contribution aims to shed light on the determinants of food security at national level. We first build a theoretical framework linking explicitly food security measured by the Bonilla index and national intervention policy intervention in agriculture. Second, the empirical methodology aims at assessing the impact of national policy responses to 2008 price surge in terms of food security using the national rate assistance index on importable food products for 42 countries over the period 1995-2010. Our results suggest that most developing countries have largely used their possibility to play with the NRA level in order to moderate BI during the 2008 food price surge

Impact of domestic support and border measures for developing countries’ food security

Food security is a major concern, especially for developing countries where a large percentage of population lives in rural areas and where agricultural sector represents an important weight in their economy. Agricultural and food imports play a particular key role in terms of food security in low income countries. Indeed, dependency on imports for food may raise a problem for food security in particular in the case of sudden price increase which put up national food bill. The national state of food availability combining food imports and domestic food production thus constitutes some crucial information. Following Diaz-Bonilla et al. (2000), this contribution aims to shed light on the determinants of food security at national level. We first build a theoretical framework linking explicitly food security measured by the Bonilla index and national intervention policy intervention in agriculture. Second, the empirical methodology aims at assessing the impact of national policy responses to 2008 price surge in terms of food security using the national rate assistance index on importable food products for 42 countries over the period 1995-2010. Our results suggest that most developing countries have largely used their possibility to play with the NRA level in order to moderate BI during the 2008 food price surge

Price Index Insurances in the Agriculture Markets

In this article, we introduce price index insurances on agricultural goods. Although these seem similar to derivatives, there are significant differences between price index insurances and derivatives. First, unlike derivatives, there are no entrance barriers for purchasing insurances, making them the risk management tools that are accessible to almost all farmers. Second, since insurances are issued in a certain number for any individual farm, unlike futures, for example, they cannot be used for speculation and are used solely for hedging price risk. Third, unlike forwards, they are heavily regulated and do not default and cause counterparty risk. In addition to all differences (or benefits), such products have just recently been introduced in the agricultural insurance market. In this article, we investigate if there could have been a financially viable market where these products are traded. More precisely, we investigate whether an insurance company can design a portfolio of optimal contracts that gives a higher Sharpe ratio than the financial market index prices (here, FTSE 100 and other three major indexes). To reach the article’s objective, we take three steps, in considering theoretical, practical, and corporation standpoints. In the first step, we show what an optimal contract would look like from the demand side in a theoretical setup and we obtain the optimal contract from the farmers' standpoint. In the second step, by adopting a more practical approach in meeting the Key Performance Indicators requirements set by the market participants (both demand and supply side), we find the optimal policies specifications from the first step, in the market equilibrium. This step also helps to determine some unobservable market parameters like volatility. Finally, by adopting a corporation standpoint we bring our model to the U.K. farm index prices and find an optimal portfolio of the products on products from 10 commodities. We demonstrate that investing in such a business is financially viable, as the optimal insurance portfolio produces a Sharpe ratio that outperforms the FTSE 100 and other major market indexes

TRPC1 and TRPC3 involvement in DMD physiopathology and as potential targets for treatment in complement to rAAV-microdystrophin

International audienc