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Category: Macro

The Psychology of Food Riots

I missed this article by Evan Fraser and Andrew Rimas in Foreign Affairs when it came out in January and discovered it last week while doing bibliographical research for a grant proposal.

Aside from the fact that Fraser and Rimas seem to confuse the effects of rising food prices and food price volatility, anyone with an interest in food policy should read it, as it nicely illustrates the fact that food prices alone are unlikely to trigger political unrest:

Becker and Posner on Food Prices in Developing Countries, and Social Science Epistemology

This weekend, Gary Becker and Richard Posner — two of the smartest and most prolific academics in the nation — wrote about food prices in developing countries on their blog. As always, their analysis is excellent and their writing is top-notch, so what I discuss in this post is really a quibble.