Cross country maize market linkages in Africa: integration and price transmission across local and global markets

We model twenty seven sub-Saharan African domestic maize markets within a Global Vector AutorRegression framework. The main purpose is to fully embed multilateral trade flows as a way to better structure local price transmission dynamics and interdependencies and get a more comprehensive picture of food price shocks propagation. We found a generally weak integration of domestic maize markets with regional and global markets. However, even in the absence of long run integration, between-country market contagion remains significant and short run price shocks propagate rapidly. Most local markets appear to be significantly more responsive to local than to global shocks