Gh. Layani; E. Ghorbanian; M. Bakhshoodeh
Abstract
Introduction: Given the importance of cereals in Iranian households’ baskets, scarcity and fluctuation of this product can reduce welfare of the society. Since the demand for this product comes from two channels of domestic production and imports, it is vital not only to control and monitor its production ...
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Introduction: Given the importance of cereals in Iranian households’ baskets, scarcity and fluctuation of this product can reduce welfare of the society. Since the demand for this product comes from two channels of domestic production and imports, it is vital not only to control and monitor its production but also to take into account the grains global market and trade, as well as the factors affecting the imports of these products. This is because of the fact that any price change can easily be transmitted to the importer countries such as Iran. In this context, this study aims to investigate global maize price transmission to Iran and the possible substitutability between domestic and imported grains by applying Armington and Pass-Through elasticities, Moreover, factors affecting grain imports are studies for the sake of policy implication.
Materials and Methods: For the purposes of this study, the Armington and Pass-Through elasticities four major grains markets, including wheat, barley, maize and rice, were calculated as follow:
(1)
,
Where d and m stand for domestic production and imports, respectively and p and q denote corresponding prices and quantities for selected products. The main function of estimated armington and Pass-Through elasticities as follow:
(2)
(3)
In this study, we used the ADF test to test stationary of variables. Realizing static variables in level and first difference, I (0) and I (1), we used ARDL approach to investigate long-run and short-run relation between variables. The following equation was estimated to examine factors affecting the grain imports to the country:
(4)
Where lM is log of imports of cereals, lGDP is log of GDP, lP is log of relative prices, lE is log of the exchange rate, lT is log of tariffs on imported cereals and lDP is log of domestic production.The required data include imports and domestic production of grain (wheat, barley, rice and maize), domestic and world price of grain GDP, exchange rate for 1981 to 2011 and were collected from the Statistical Center of Iran and FAO.
Results and Discussion: According to the results of this study, Armington elasticity indicates that the imported wheat is substitute for domestic wheat. The log-run Armington elasticities for wheat, corn and barley are found to be 0.41, 0.314 and 0.076, respectively. The small elasticity for barley shows a kind of independency of its domestic market to the world market. The corresponding elasticity coefficients for rice are -0.341 and -0.193 in the long-run and short-run, respectively. Accordingly, imported rice is complement with domestic rice. Findings also indicate that in the long-run the GDP and domestic production have significant effects on import demand of maize, barley and rice. The GDP and tariff rates have significant effect on wheat import demand. Due to the fact that the Iranian state exclusively imports wheat, the tariff rate exhibits an unexpected sign for this product. In the short run, GDP is the most influential variable. According to the results, income has positive and significant effect on the demand for imported maize and in the short-run one percent increase in income results in 1.78 percent increase on maize imports. Furthermore, wheat error correction factor of -0.5 reveals that half of the difference between short-run and long-run equilibrium will be resolved each year. The speed of adjustments for barley, maize and rice are very high. Therefore, any shock to their imports back into balance will return.
Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, domestic grains are not substitutes for imported grains and thus we cannot rely on imports at least in the short run. Policies that make domestic grains more expensive will result in increasing the share of imports. Reduction of tariffs is recognized as an effective tool for trade liberalization. To support domestic production, the government should seek policies that cause imports to decrease. Tariff barriers can lead to this end; however, the policy needs to be taken together with protectionist policies. In contrast, reduction of tariffs for these products may be imposed if the purpose is primarily to capture domestic demand. Because of the complementary relationship between domestic and imported rice as well as high cost of production, imports of these products is one of the fastest and most common ways to capture the domestic demand, however, the government should support domestic producers by relevant policies such as guaranteed prices and by providing their basic needs at the international level.
M. Shabanzadeh-Khoshrody; A. Mahmoodi; R. Esfanjari Kenari
Abstract
Introduction: Agriculture as one of old sectors of economy has been important role in the supply food for peoples and raw materials. Globalization causes rapid growth of world trade and reduces information and communications costs. Globalization and rapid growth of trade increases the potential benefits ...
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Introduction: Agriculture as one of old sectors of economy has been important role in the supply food for peoples and raw materials. Globalization causes rapid growth of world trade and reduces information and communications costs. Globalization and rapid growth of trade increases the potential benefits of trade for agriculture from various aspects. The potential benefits of trade for agriculture increases from three aspects. Direct increase in the domain of agricultural sector activities for competition in the global market results in the benefits of access to global markets. This is especially true in cases where there is comparative advantage and the indirect effects of increased global trade on non-agricultural sectors that cause the domestic demand for food change from qualitative and quantitative aspects, are the benefits of this event. However, during the process of globalization, how to influence prices in different markets, including the impact of world prices on domestic prices is an important issue in trade policy analysis. During this process domestic prices are directly related to world prices. With this approach, the main objective of this study is to examine the effect of world price transfers to domestic markets for sensitive and certain agricultural products in Iran during 1360-91.
Materials and Methods: To achieve this goal in this study, the Armington and the foreign currency elasticity of ten selected agricultural products in Iran including wheat, barley, rice, corn, soybean meal, vegetable oil (soybean and sunflower), sugar, eggs, poultry and beef, have been estimated and examined using Autoregressive Distribution lag Model (ARDL). In order to investigate speed of adjustment or in other words the speed of movement towards equilibrium, typically the error correction model (ECM) is used. Existence of cointegration or in other words, long term relationship between a set of economic variables provide the basis for the use of error correction model. In fact, error correction model links the short term fluctuations of the variables to their long term equilibrium values and shows adjustment speed and long term movement towards equilibrium.
Results and Discussion: The results of the present study show transfer of the world price fluctuations to the domestic market in the long run is more than in the short run. Moreover, if the products face a gap in domestic demand, and the local production is so limited that it cannot limit the import of that product, the products would be more affected by fluctuations in world prices. The results of ECM model reveal that the speed of adjustment towards long run equilibrium for most products is low such that if the shock enters the market of each product a long time is required for correcting the short-run and long-run imbalance equilibrium and bring it back to the first equilibrium.
Conclusion: The results showed that most of the crops under review (e.g. corn) face with the low gap of demand and the ability of domestic production in limiting the imports is low. Therefore, a significant portion of these products are imported from abroad. Given that the country is faced with a crisis of drought and water shortage problems, the price policies cannot eliminate this problem and help stabilize the market by encouraging increased production Thus, they lead to increased demand for imports. Under such circumstances, the only way to increase production in the country is enhancement of productivity in the agricultural sector. Of course, this is only possible in the long run. For products such as rice and meat the elasticity of substitution of domestic production with imports is small. In other words, if a policy is adopted that results in an increase in the price of these products, the share of these products of the total imports does not increase that much in comparison with other products. To support these products, policies can be used such as import tariffs in the short run. Since in the ECM model for the majority of products, the adjustment speed or the speed to move to the long-run equilibrium is slow, it is necessary to consider the harmful effects and consequences of shocks in the economy. Because if a shock is entered into the model, to correct the imbalance between short-run and long-run equilibrium and come back to long-run equilibrium needs a long time.
Keywords: Armington Elasticity, Autoregressive Distribution lags Model (ARDL), Currency Elasticity, Price Transfer
