Poverty impacts of changes in the price of agricultural commodities Recent evidence from Argentina

MONCARZ, PEDRO ESTEBAN

Rosario

Congreso; XLVIII Reunión Anual de la AAEP; 2013

Asociación Argentina de Economía Política

With a large share of the population with low and medium-low incomes, the increase in agricultural commodities prices can potentially hurt an important part of the population through a raise in the price of goods that weights heavily in households expenditures, those that constitute the food-basket. The ex-ante evidence shows that this is the case. A less obvious channel, through changes in labour income would benefit more middle income households. Export taxes appears having limited effectiveness, while the elimination of the VAT on food and beverages would be enough to compensate for most of the negative effects of the increase in the world price of agricultural commoditie.