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PhD Defence: Carine Meyimdjui

Published on January 18, 2019 Updated on January 24, 2019
Date
Le 24 January 2019 De 14:00 à 16:30
Location
Pôle Tertiaire - Site La Rotonde - 26 avenue Léon Blum - 63000 Clermont-Ferrand
Salle Pascal - 313

Essays on public policies of food crises and exports upgrading in developing countries

Jury

Théophile AZOMAHOU, Professor, Université Clermont-Auvergne
Jean-Louis COMBES, Professor, Université Clermont-Auvergne

Patricia AUGIER, Professor, Université d’Aix-Marseille, GREQAM
Mathilde MAUREL, Research Director, Université de Paris I, Sorbonne, CES

Mary-Françoise RENARD, Professor, Université Clermont-Auvergne
Issouf SAMAKE, Senior Economist, Resident Representative for Somalia
Robert TEH, Chief Economist, Economic Research and Statistics Division WTO
 

Summary

The recent surges in food commodity prices have drawn attention on one of most severe sources of vulnerability for developing countries. In addition to financial constraints that these countries already face, (among these, the lack of insurance system to weather external shocks), their households also spend an outsized portion of their budgets on food consumption. Consequently, they experienced substantial increase in their import bills in the wake of surges in food prices. Our thesis presents several essays that examine on one hand the public policies taken in response to import food shocks. On the other hand, since trade-related policies as well as exports concentration may also heighten countries’ vulnerability, relevant aspects of international trade are also discussed. The first half of our dissertation examines the link between import food price shocks and fiscal policy. Chapter 1 describes the effect of food price shocks on governments' expenditure structure, while Chapters 2 and 3 turn to how governments' use of discretionary fiscal policy and fiscal stimulus during food price shocks affect household consumption and socio-political instability. The second half of our thesis consists of two chapters addressing agricultural price distortion and exports concentration. Chapter 4 lays out the impact of climatic variability on agricultural price distortions, while Chapter 5 focuses on how exports concentration and exports quality upgrading affect household consumption volatility.
 

Keywords

food price, vulnerability, government consumption expenditure, discretionary policy, price distortions, exports concentration, exports quality, household consumption, socio-political instability

theses.fr/en/s181531