TY  - JOUR
AU  - Balat,Jorge
AU  - Brambilla,Irene
AU  - Porto,Guido
TI  - Realizing the Gains From Trade: Export Crops, Marketing Costs, and Poverty
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13395
PY  - 2007
Y2  - September 2007
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13395
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13395.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Jorge Balat
Yale University
Department of Economics
28 Hilllhouse
P. O. Box 208264
New Haven, CT  06520-8264
E-Mail: jorge.balat@yale.edu

Irene Brambilla
Yale University
Department of Economics
37 Hilllhouse
P. O. Box 208264
New Haven, CT  06520-8264
Tel: 203/432-6563
Fax: 203/432-6323
E-Mail: irene.brambilla@yale.edu

Guido Porto
The World Bank
Development Research Group
1818 H. Street, NW, MailStop MC3-303
Washington, DC 20433
E-Mail: gporto@worldbank.org
AB  - This paper explores the role of export costs in the process of poverty reduction in rural Africa. We claim that the marketing costs that emerge when the commercialization of export crops requires intermediaries can lead to lower participation into export cropping and, thus, to higher poverty. We test the model using data from the Uganda National Household Survey. We show that: i) farmers living in villages with fewer outlets for sales of agricultural exports are likely to be poorer than farmers residing in market-endowed villages; ii) market availability leads to increased household participation in export cropping (coffee, tea, cotton, fruits); iii) households engaged in export cropping are less likely to be poor than subsistence-based households. We conclude that the availability of markets for agricultural export crops help realize the gains from trade. This result uncovers the role of complementary factors that provide market access and reduce marketing costs as key building blocks in the link between the gains from export opportunities and the poor.
ER  -