Markets and Famines - Softcover

Ravallion, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198287275 ISBN 13: 9780198287278

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Famines have presented a persistent challenge to economic thought, provoking debates over the importance of aggregate food availability and the role of markets and governments in allocating limited food. This study of the economics of famine applies some modern methods of economic investigation to such issues, showing how the sharp increases in mortality observed during famines can arise without a decline in aggregate food availability, and how the markets' use of information about future scarcity is crucial to their performance during a famine. Including a detailed empirical investigation of the 1974 famine in Bangladesh, this book sheds new light on the way markets work during famines and on the effects of policies aimed at famine relief or prevention.

About this title

About the Author

Martin Ravallion, Research Fellow, Department of Economics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University.

From the Back Cover

This study, widely acclaimed since its first appearance in 1987, applies some modern methods of economic investigation to the question of how famines happen in market economies, focusing particularly on the 1974-75 famine in Bangladesh. The book explains how sharp increases in mortality can arise from even small changes in the distribution of food consumption, either between people or over time. A recurrent theme is that the way markets for storable foods use information about future scarcity is crucial to their performance during a famine.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198287275
• ISBN 13: 9780198287278
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 212