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DC Folks: Talk on Food Prices and Food Riots at the CGD on Monday, December 5

I will be giving the Center for Global Development’s Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar next Monday, December 5, 2011, at 4 pm. In case anyone would like to meet beforehand, I am free in late morning and early afternoon, so please drop me an email.

Here is the announcement for the seminar:

The Center for Global Development presents
a Massachusetts Avenue Development Seminar (MADS) on

Food Prices and Riots:
Estimating How the Level and Volatility of Food Prices Shape Social Unrest in the Developing World, 1990-2011

Featuring
Marc Bellemare
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University

With Discussant
Ed Carr

Associate Professor
Department of Geography, University of South Carolina
and
American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow
United States Agency for International Development

Monday, December 5, 2011
4:00pm–5:30pm

at

Center for Global Development
1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Third Floor, Washington, DC

*Please bring photo identification*

Paper Abstract:  Can food prices cause political unrest? Throughout history, riots have frequently broken out, ostensibly as a consequence of high food prices. This paper studies the impact of food prices on political unrest using monthly data at the international level. Results indicate that in the period 1990-2011, food price increases appear to have led to increases in political unrest, whereas food price volatility has been associated with decreased political unrest.