Distributive impacts of the food price crisis in the Andean region

This study analyses the distributive consequences associated with the recent international food price crisis in the Andean region. The study explores the distributive repercussions of the crisis by means of a simple simulation exercise which isolates the direct and short-term effects of actual increases in food prices across the Andean region. The paper finds substantive and heterogeneous poverty impacts, ranging from two to six per cent points in the incidence of poverty. Results are found very sensitive to the net consumer (or producer) position of the household, and less so across other characteristics of the household. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.