MEASURING THE SUPPLY RESPONSE FUNCTION OF TOBACCO IN ZIMBABWE

This paper presents an estimate of the price elasticity of supply for tobacco output in Zimbabwe using an adapted Nerlovian model. The results indicate a short-run elasticity of +0.34 and a long-run elasticity of +0.81, suggesting that tobacco farmers are highly unresponsive to price changes. These estimates are similar to those obtained for tobacco in supply response studies conducted in other developing African countries