Abstract
Price formation in periodic marketing systems where unstandardised volumetric measures are commonly used is vulnerable to various types of manipulation. The maize marketing system in the Atlantic Province, Republic of Benin is one such case where price formation involves two processes: the price per measure and the measurement technique. The plurality of measurement techniques means that the price per measure does not function as an indicator of scarcity. While the price per measure indicates the general price level, the ‘fine tuning’ of the final price takes place during the measurement process. In this chapter, practical means are introduced whereby the effect of the measurement technique on market performance may be analysed.
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The research described in this chapter was a socioeconomic component of the Special Research Programme 308, ‘Adapted Farming in West Africa’, of the University of Hohenheim which took place in collaboration with Benin’s national agricultural research organisation DRA (Direction de la Recherche Agricole). All the data in tables and figures are generated by this project and appear in B. Christiansen (1993) Effizienz des Vermarktungssystems von Mais dargestellt am Beispiel der Provinz Atlantique, Benin (Kiel: Wissenschaftsverlag Vauk). Thanks to Priscilla Magrath for comments.
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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Christiansen, B. (1999). Unstandardised Measures and the Analysis of Price Efficiency: An Application in Benin. In: Harriss-White, B. (eds) Agricultural Markets from Theory to Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27273-0_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27273-0_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-27275-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-27273-0
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