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Spatial market integration during a pandemic: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria

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Title Spatial market integration during a pandemic: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria
 
Creator Amare, Mulubrhan
Abay, Kibrom A.
Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.
 
Subject markets
spatial analysis
food prices
COVID-19
trade
marketing
 
Description This paper uses comprehensive and long time series monthly food price data and a panel dyadic regression framework to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated policy responses on spatial market integration across a diverse set of food items in Nigeria. The empirical results reveal several important insights. First, we show that a significant slowdown in the speed of adjustment and price transmission occurred during the pandemic. For some food items, the speed of adjustment and, by implication, spatial market integration weakened by two- to-threefold after the outbreak of the pandemic. The effect was especially pronounced for perishable food items. Second, lockdown measures and the spread of the pandemic triggered additional dispersion in market prices across markets. For example, lockdown measures were associated with a 5%–10% reduction in the speed of readjustment toward long-term equilibrium. Third, additional underlying attributes of markets, including lack of access to digital infrastructure and distance between markets, exacerbated impacts associated with the pandemic. For instance, access to Internet service reduced the slowdown in the speed of adjustment caused by the pandemic, but longer distances between market pairs induced greater slowdown in the speed of price transmission. Our findings offer important insights for revitalizing the efficiency of food markets affected by the pandemic. The heterogenous impacts of the pandemic across value chains and markets reinforce the need to properly target post-pandemic recovery interventions and investments. Finally, we offer some insights to reduce the vulnerability of food and market systems to disruptions in future pandemics or similar phenomena that inhibit food marketing and trade.
 
Date 2023
2023-11-17T18:48:28Z
2023-11-17T18:48:28Z
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Amare, Mulubrhan; Abay, Kibrom A.; and Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L. Spatial market integration during a pandemic: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria. Agricultural Economics. Article in press. First published on November 12, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12809
0169-5150
https://hdl.handle.net/10568/134551
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12809
 
Language en
 
Relation https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136963
 
Rights CC-BY-4.0
Open Access
 
Source Agricultural Economics