To what extent is P.P.D a constraint
on economic growth &
development in developing countries?
Primary Product Dependency
A Nation that relies
on the export of 1 or 2
primary products for
the majority of its
FOREX earnings,
leaving it vulnerable
to fluctuating world
prices
Primary Products can be divided into hard commodities
Copper
Tin
Iron
Soft Commodities
Agricultural Crops: Wheat, Palm Oil, Rice and Fruit
Issues w/ PPD
Price Fluctuations
Given thier PES and PED,
any demand-side or
supply-side shock will result
in a significant price change
Fluctuations in producers' incomes
and foreign exchange earnings
since demand in price
inelastic, then a fall in price
will cause total revenue to
fall and in turn, the foreign
currency earning from
exports to fall
Difficulty of planning investment & output
the price fluctuations cause uncertainty
which is a detterent to investment.
Natural Disasters
extreme weather such as
hurricanes, tornadoes,
droughts and tsunamis can
cause severe distruption to
production of primary
products, especially
agricultural products
Protectionism by developed countries
EX: The huge subsidies
given to US cotton farmers
have created great
difficulties for Indian cotton
farmers, who are unable to
compete; the EU's Common
Agricultiral Poliy has meant
that there is no free acess
to European markets for
food from developing
ocuntries.
Low YED for Primary Products
Prebisch Singer Hypothesis
states that terms of trade
between primary products
and manufactured goods tend
to detiriorate over time
Evaluation
Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs)
have comparative advantage in primary
products
Demand may be income elastic
Diamonds (Botswana)
Oil (Nigeria)
Gold (Ghana)
Sustainability
i.e. in the L-run if
resources are
non-renewable,
economic growth in
unlikely to be
sustainable
Eval. for Prebisch-Singer
Some countries have
developed on the basis of
their primary products,
ex. Botswana w/ their
diamonds
if a developing
country has a
comparative
advantage in a
primary product then
its resources will be
used more efficiently
by specialising in the
production of that
product
Primary product prices
rose sharply until mid 2008
while the prices of
manufactured goods were
falling