Agricultural Trade Liberalisation and Welfare of Rural Households in Bangladesh: A Complementary Policy Framework

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of agricultural trade liberalisation on the welfare of rural households in Bangladesh with a view to providing a complementary policy framework. The study used data from both primary and secondary sources and applied multiple mathematical, statistical and econometrical models to achieve its objective. The study found that agricultural trade liberalisation had positive impacts on the welfare of rural households. However, the liberalisation policy was not effective in bringing about its full potential due to shortcomings associated with socio-economic factors and weak economic institutions. It argues that the impacts of agricultural trade liberalisation on the welfare of rural households depend not only on liberalisation itself but also on other complementary reforms in non-trade areas. It recommends a complementary policy framework along with trade reform policies needed in the rice markets focusing on institutional changes