Overview

Liberia has a long history of non-inclusive development with dire consequences for its population, in terms of poverty and conflict. This research explores recent trends in the post-war Liberian cocoa market that suggest a possible break with the past. Structural changes in the cocoa market are found to have strengthened the bargaining power of smallholder farmers and increased their market participation on increasingly beneficial terms in a number of ways - such as a larger share of the world-market price and better access to inputs and services. The cocoa market has become more inclusive. The research explains how a series of institutional changes - changes in the formal and informal rules of the game - have contributed to this process and suggests why. It identifies four major causal mechanisms that help us better understand the role that institutions can play in making agricultural markets more inclusive - in Liberia and beyond.

Full Product Details

9789171067838

Table of Contents

Reviews

This is a very well-thought and well-written book. By analyzing in-depth the institutional structure of the cocoa market in Liberia, the book offers an excellent background with plenty of empirical information. However, Gun Eriksson Skoog's main contribution is that she takes the macro-economic, political and institutional framework of Acemoglu and Robinson, and applies it at the micro-level in the agricultural value chain, using the Liberian cocoa market as her laboratory. In doing so, she lays out a broad research agenda which is certain to attract future research. Kostas Karantininis, Professor, Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) The book's main thesis argues that, although complex and still in transition, recent changes had a positive effect for smallholders. It is based on a broad set of data, all original and collected by the author in an extensive field-work. An important contribution by this book is to clearly assess 'what happened' in the analysed market and through which channels it affected the smallholders. It offers a clear way of illustrating institutional change that is rarely found in similar literature and makes a big effort of measurement in a context where data are non-existent or very poor. Cecilia Navarra, Centre de Recherche en Economie du Developpement (CRED), University of Namur, Belgium

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available