How does Market Access for Smallholders affect Export Supply? The Case of Tobacco Marketing in Malawi

No 16-054/V, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: We measure the impact of a reduction in transaction costs on crop area and production decisions of smallholder tobacco growers in Malawi. For identification we exploit the introduction of an additional tobacco auction floor. Estimations are based on annual data by Extension Planning Area. A 10% reduction in distance to auction floor is shown to increase crop area and production around 4% and 10% respectively. Supply response weakens beyond a distance to auction floor of 60km and runs along the intensive margin: existing tobacco growers improve productivity of cultivation. Impacts are robust for non-random placement of auction floor and several other threats.

Keywords: transaction costs; market access; subsistence farming; food & cash crops; Malawi; Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 O13 O55 Q11 Q13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-07-25, Revised 2018-08-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.tinbergen.nl/16054.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tin:wpaper:20160054

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 ().