Price Transmission in the Zambian Sugar Sector: An Assessment of Market Efficiency and Policy Implications

摘要

Market liberalisation that swept through Africa starting in the 1990s was intended to promote agricultural growth by stimulating investment in under-capitalised sectors. The article assesses price transmission to better understand market performance following liberalisation and foreign investment. Our findings show weak and asymmetric price transmission. These results imply room for policy interventions to enhance the welfare effects of the growing sugar sector. Weak and asymmetric price transmission also implies that increased access to export markets, as through the European Union (EU) Everything But Arms (EBA) agreement, could have smaller and less widely distributed benefits than would otherwise be the case.