Abstract: Maize prices fluctuate significantly throughout the year in Malawi, creating winners and losers depending on who is selling and who is buying the staple at different times. We link maize market price data to nationally and temporally representative household survey data on maize sales and purchases to quantify welfare gains and losses throughout the year. A stable maize price would lead to only a modest increase in Malawi’s total social surplus when summed across a whole year, but a dramatic reduction in hunger during the lean season. We discuss policy options to smooth maize prices throughout the year.
Authors: Levison Chiwaula, Joachim De Weerdt, Jan Duchoslav, Joseph Goeb, Anderson Gondwe, and Aubrey Jolex
Read and download the working paper here (PDF 1483 KB)
