Investigating the forces that drive local food prices

What influences fluctuations in local food prices? Is it domestic drivers like weather and harvest cycles? Or external forces like world prices?
 
World Bank economist John Baffes and consultant Varun Kshirsagar explore these questions in their recent post on the Let’s Talk Development blog.  In a working paper that examines evidence from Tanzania’s maize market, they provide valuable insight on the issue of export bans and find that more open trade policies will have increasing relevance for Tanzania’s future.

Read more here.