The recent rise in global food prices threatens many countries worldwide, especially the vulnerable populations. Viable coping strategies can only be designed based on the important policy lessons learned from the experiences of these countries in confronting the similar shocks of 2007–2011. However, the disproportionate effects of these events and the impacts of policy responses remain largely unexplored. We examine the impact of a food price surge and the effectiveness of various mitigating policies in Bangladesh, one of the most populous, densely populated countries in the world that is plagued by poverty. Specifically, we combine individual-level expenditure survey data with recent advances in consumer theory to examine the welfare consequences across income groups and geographic areas of the country over 2000–2016. Our empirical findings lend support to the hypothesis that the brunt of the price surge was borne by relatively less affluent and rural households, and government poverty alleviation programmes were largely ineffective.

中文翻译：

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孟加拉国食品商品价格变化和消费者福利：当今的宝贵教训

最近全球粮食价格上涨威胁着世界许多国家，特别是弱势群体。可行的应对策略只能根据这些国家在应对 2007-2011 年类似冲击时吸取的重要政策教训来设计。然而，这些事件的不成比例的影响和政策反应的影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。我们研究了孟加拉国食品价格飙升的影响以及各种缓解政策的有效性，孟加拉国是世界上人口最多、人口最稠密的国家之一，深受贫困困扰。具体来说，我们将个人支出调查数据与消费者理论的最新进展相结合，研究 2000 年至 2016 年期间该国各收入群体和地理区域的福利后果。我们的实证研究结果支持了这样的假设：价格上涨的首当其冲是由相对不太富裕的农村家庭承受的，而政府的扶贫计划基本上是无效的。