Carlo del Ninno

Poverty Alleviation in Mozambique: A Multi-Market Analysis of the Role of Food Aid

The use of food aid in poverty alleviation programs has been hampered by two problems: the inability to target to households in need, and the disincentive effects on agriculture. In this paper, we present econometric estimates of in Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) for households in Maputo, Mozambique, and develop a multi-market model to show that in Maputo, imported yellow maize is not only self-targeting, but that owing to a combination of the low cross-price elasticity with locally produced staples (particularly, white maize) and cross-border trade in food products, the disincentive effects on domestic agriculture have been negligible.