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Information, efficiency, and welfare in agricultural markets
Author(s) -
Jensen Robert T.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.29
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1574-0862
pISSN - 0169-5150
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-0862.2010.00501.x
Subject(s) - welfare , icts , arbitrage , economics , empirical evidence , market power , information and communications technology , agriculture , developing country , supply chain , industrial organization , public economics , business , microeconomics , marketing , market economy , financial economics , economic growth , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , political science , law , biology , monopoly
Information and communications technologies (ICTs) have spread rapidly in the developing world. There has been considerable interest in the potential role ICTs, particularly mobile phones, have begun to play in the marketing of agricultural outputs in these countries. In this article, we discuss the potential impacts ICTs may have on welfare, both in terms of potential efficiency gains (via improved arbitrage), and welfare transfers among agents in the supply chain (via reduced informational asymmetries and market power). We also review the recent empirical evidence for such effects.