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The aim of this paper is to deal with the linkage between agricultural trade liberalization and food security in Sub‐Saharan Africa.

The analysis uses the GTAP model which is a global dynamic applied general equilibrium model to assess how the multifarious trade and support policies in agriculture affect the poor in the Sub‐Saharan African group based on food security concerns. The policy strategies analyzed are two liberalization scenarios based on the proposals made in the present round of agricultural negotiations in terms of market access and export competition, plus a free agricultural trade benchmark scenario.

The results of alternative trade liberalization strategies on key food security indicators in the SSA region are ambiguous. The impact varies depending on the extent of liberalization and also the comparative advantage of the SSA group at the sectoral level.

Despite several studies on food security, especially after the food crisis in 2008, very little research has focussed on the agricultural trade liberalization impact with a CGE approach.

Drawing first on stylised facts, the purpose of this paper is to isolate the impact of trade liberalisation policies pursued for the past two decades on poverty in agricultural households in Ghana.

Two samples of agricultural households are drawn from the most recently published Ghana Living Standards Survey. Using terms of trade as a channel of the reforms, an econometric estimate of the impact of terms of trade on per‐capita expenditure, of these agricultural households, is run on both samples using two cross‐sectional models.

The results suggest that trade liberalisation had an adverse welfare impact on agricultural households immediately after the reforms‐1992; however, trade positively influenced welfare much later‐1999. Even though agricultural producers' terms of trade have improved they still constitute the largest segment of the poor in Ghana.

Targeted trade policy instruments are required to positively impact mainstream agricultural households in poverty alleviation efforts. The absence of repeated cross‐sections in the Living Standards Survey limits the possibility of exploring dynamic effects.

This paper isolates welfare effects of trade on agriculture households in Ghana – a departure from previous studies which examine the effect of trade on all households. This distinction is important since welfare effects of trade in Ghana are more likely to impact households whose livelihoods depend on agriculture than on other households.

There is no single undertaking regulating food assistance at the international level. International food assistance is regulated by a patchwork of rules emanating from different institutions and normative arrangements. This study aims to explore how international law shapes international food assistance. How is international law regulating food assistance, considering this patchwork of institutions and norms? What dominant narratives enshrined in legal agreements shape the evolution of international food assistance?

The author uses the concept of “regime complex”, which allows analyzing partially overlapping and nonhierarchical regimes governing a particular issue, shedding light on the narratives and institutional arrangements that lead to the consolidation of international rules. The author identifies two main regimes that govern international food assistance: the food assistance regime and the food trade regime.

The author shows that using the “regime complex” concept clarifies the evolution of international food assistance, highlighting that international law is a crucial element in shaping international food assistance and showing that the two main institutional regimes governing it interact and shape rules along three main themes: the centrality of donor States’ self-interests, the relationship between international food assistance and trade liberalization and the goal of achieving food security for the beneficiaries.

Using the regime complex concept, the author brings new light on the broader institutional and legal framework influencing the governance of international food assistance, showing that different regimes take part in its shaping.

The objective of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature by examining which combination of three important agricultural policies – land distribution, domestic food production, and trade liberalization – is most conducive to improving food security in developing countries.

This study uses panel‐data analysis of 58 developing countries between 1990 and 2009, employing OLS, GMM and 2SLS estimators.

The paper finds that more equal land distribution, higher domestic food production, and a greater degree of trade openness impact food security positively.

Due to limited data on land distribution, the study analyzes data for 58 developing countries only. The fact that this sample is not statistically different from all developing countries, however, bolsters the validity of drawing generalized inferences about all developing countries based on the findings obtained. Another limitation rests with the paper's attempt at examining the effect of the three policies' joint impact on food security through the use of interactive terms, which should be developed further in future research.

The findings suggest that improving land distribution through land reforms, augmenting the level of domestic food production at the expense of non‐consumable crops, and liberalizing trade in a regulated manner could help developing countries bolster food security.

The paper presents a novel contribution to existing literature, both because it is one of the first to use empirical cross‐country analysis in the field of global food security and agricultural policy studies and the first to evaluate the conjoint effect of the three agricultural policy decisions on food security.

This is a theoretical paper in the field of structuralist macroeconomics. The paper focuses on commodity price fluctuation which has emerged as one of the major macroeconomic factors with significant bearing on the relationship between the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors.

The paper develops a dual economy model consisting of an agricultural sector and an industrial sector. The commodity price is subject to the fluctuations due to the fact that stock of primary goods is an asset which is sensitive to speculations. The paper considers a standard methodology of dynamic adjustment process involving change in stock of agricultural goods and price of agricultural goods under perfect foresight. The saddle path properties of the equilibrium are also examined.

The paper shows that the balanced budget fiscal expansion, capital account liberalization and the agricultural expansion lead to expansion of the industrial sector as well as level of employment. The increase in world interest rate may lead to contraction of the industrial sector and depress employment.

We will consider the openness of the economy in explaining how different macroeconomic policies and capital account liberalization generate multiple cross effects on the inter-connectedness between agricultural and the non-agricultural sector. The paper will discuss the issue of employment generation in conjunction with commodity price fluctuation. We depart from the literature by using Taylor rule under which interest rate is fixed by the Central Bank such that money supply becomes endogenous.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how trade liberalization influences rural poverty reduction in China.

The authors make use of China Family Panel Studies survey data, take annual income of farmers of RMB2,300 and RMB3,450 as the poverty lines (poverty line 1 and poverty line 2, respectively). Residents below poverty line 1 and poverty line 2 are 2,580 and 2,661, respectively. Probit model is used to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on the poverty probability. Income-deciding equation is used to estimate the impact of trade liberalization on the income level of poor residents in rural areas. Income-deciding equation is also used to examine the transmission mechanism of trade liberalization affecting rural poverty.

This study finds that trade liberalization can reduce the poverty probability of rural residents and promote the income growth of poor residents in rural areas. Trade liberalization increases the income of poor residents and reduces poverty through transmission mechanisms such as promoting economic growth and financial expenditure.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to quantitatively model the impact of trade liberalization on rural poverty reduction in China using residents’ survey data.

Trade liberalization policies pursued by the Pacific Forum Island Countries (FICs) have been further cemented as an appropriate strategy for economic growth through the recently adopted trade agreements. Proponents of trade liberalization also argue that free trade leads to improvements in environmental quality. According to the “environmental uznets curve” (EKC) hypothesis there would initially be some environmental degradation, but as income rises through free trade, demand for higher environmental quality would lead to improvements in the quality of the environment. It is suggested that FICs should have complementary environmental and social policies to ensure that the environment is sustainably managed and the poor are not left out in the new economic environment. Free trade amongst the FICs therefore is not a case of “two gains for one”. That is, we cannot expect both a rise in per capita income and environmental quality to be delivered simultaneously without the adoption of complementary environmental and social policies. The vulnerable environment of the FICs cannot wait for environmental quality based on the EKC hypothesis.

The aim of this paper is to revisit the Brazilian case in an effort to shed light on how state-business relations have been transformed in the contemporary era of globalization. Brazil has long been considered the archetype of “dependent development”, having served as the inspiration for the classic theory of the relationship between states and capital in the semi-peripheral states of the developing world. Since the theory of dependent development was initially formulated in the 1970s, however, both the Brazilian political economy and the global context in which it is situated have changed dramatically.

The analysis draws on 15 months of field research conducted in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, Beijing, New Delhi and Washington, as well as at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva, involving 157 interviews with senior government officials, trade negotiators and representatives of industry and non-governmental organizations, ethnographic observation and extensive documentary research.

The author shows how the emergence of a highly competitive export-oriented agribusiness sector in Brazil has prompted the expansion and internationalization of domestic capital, leading to the emergence of an independent, private sector lobby with considerable influence on the Brazilian state. Driven by the rise of Brazilian agribusiness, the state and capital have allied together to aggressively pursue the expansion of markets for Brazilian exports, specifically through dispute settlement and negotiations at the WTO.

These findings challenge conventional understandings of state-business relations in emerging economies such as Brazil.