Alan Matthews, Trinity College Dublin

"The differentiated effects of food price spikes on poverty in Uganda"

Abstract

This paper applies an integrated CGE-micro simulation model to analyse the impact of the 2006-08 increase in commodity prices on Uganda. Previous impact analysis studies suggested that the food price shock increased poverty in Uganda as there are more net food buyers than net food seller households. We show that the agriculture commodity price shocks were poverty-reducing, but the simultaneous increases in energy and fertiliser prices were poverty-increasing. Overall, poverty decreased in Uganda as a result of external price shocks in the 2006-08 period.