Tsimpo, ClarenceWodon, QuentinCoulombe, Harold2012-06-012012-06-012008-10https://hdl.handle.net/10986/6944Concerns have been raised about the impact of rising food prices worldwide on the poor. To assess the (short term) impact of rising food prices in any particular country it is necessary to look at both the impact on food producers (who benefit from an increase in prices) and food consumers (who loose out when the price increases), with a focus on poor producers and consumers. In Ghana, the impact of a change in the price of rice is not ambiguous because a large share of the rice consumed is imported, so that the negative impact for consumers is much larger than the positive impact for producers. For maize by contrast, the impact is ambiguous since much of the consumption is locally produced. Using a recent and comprehensive household survey, this paper provides an assessment of the potential impact of higher food prices on the poor in Ghana using both simple statistical analysis and non-parametric methods. The paper finds that rising food prices for rice, maize, and other cereals would together lead to an increase in poverty, but that by contrast to a number of other countries, this increase, while not negligible, may not be as large as feared.CC BY 3.0 IGOABSOLUTE TERMSAGRICULTURAL ECONOMICSAGRICULTURAL WAGEAGRICULTUREAVERAGE INCOMEAVERAGE INCOMESBREADBULLETINCEREAL PRICESCEREALSCOMPENSATORY MEASURESCONSUMER PRICESCONSUMPTION AGGREGATECONSUMPTION BASKETCOST OF FOODCULTURAL CHANGEDEVELOPMENT RESEARCHDIETECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTEXCHANGE RATEFARMERSFLOURFOOD CONSUMERSFOOD CONSUMPTIONFOOD CROPSFOOD ITEMSFOOD POLICYFOOD POLICY RESEARCHFOOD PRICEFOOD PRICE INFLATIONFOOD PRICESFOOD PRICINGFOOD PRODUCERSFOOD PRODUCTIONFOOD SECURITYFOOD SUBSIDIESHOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTIONHOUSEHOLD SURVEYHOUSEHOLD WELFAREHUMAN DEVELOPMENTIMPACT ON POVERTYINCOMEINCOME DISTRIBUTIONINCREASE POVERTYINEQUALITYINTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTELEVELS OF CONSUMPTIONLOW-INCOME COUNTRIESMAIZEMINORITYNATIONAL LEVELNATIONAL POVERTYNEGATIVE EFFECTNEGATIVE IMPACTNET INCOMEPOLICY RESEARCHPOLICY RESEARCH WORKING PAPERPOORPOOR HOUSEHOLDPOOR HOUSEHOLDSPOOR PRODUCERSPOORER HOUSEHOLDSPOVERTY DYNAMICSPOVERTY GAPPOVERTY IMPACTPOVERTY INCREASESPOVERTY LINEPOVERTY MEASUREMENTPOVERTY MEASURESPOVERTY POVERTYPOVERTY REDUCINGPOVERTY REDUCTIONPOVERTY REDUCTION STRATEGIESPRODUCTION SIDEPROGRESSPURCHASING POWERREDUCING POVERTYREDUCTION IN POVERTYRURALRURAL AREASRURAL HEADCOUNTRURAL HEADCOUNT INDEXRURAL WELFARESAFETY NETSHORT-TERM IMPACTSQUARED POVERTY GAPSTAPLE FOODSSUB-SAHARAN AFRICAURBAN AREASVULNERABLE HOUSEHOLDSWorld Bank10.1596/1813-9450-4740