Seminar Series: Abstract

2.00
June 09 2009
Seminar Room B (Arndt Room)

Market responses to climate stress: Rice in Java in the 1930s
Pierre van der Eng, Associate Professor School of Management, Marketing & International Business (MMIB) ANU College of Business and Economics

Do markets in less-developed countries work to attain the consequences of climate stress? Using data for Java’s 19 residencies, this paper assesses the impact of variations in rainfall, on rice production. Rainfall is an important factor in rice production, and therefore in rice markets. The paper uses regional rice price data to assess the responses of rice markets to these fluctuations during 1935-1940. It finds that rice markets (and by implication markets for food crops in general) were highly integrated across Java, because episodes of El Niño-induced climate stress in the form of lower than usual rainfall did not have a considerable impact on regional rice prices. The adaptive responses of firms specialising in the trade of rice are likely to have mitigated regional deficiencies in food production caused by climate stress.