Rural Bias in the East and South-east Asian Rice Economy

This study analyses the rise in protection of rice farmers in East and South-east Asia since 1960. A statistical model of price formation is tested for Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. On average, about 90 per cent of variation in rice prices in these five countries – relative to the world price – can be an attributed to efforts at price stabilisation rather than farmer protection (or discrimination in earlier periods). The shift from urban bias to rural bias is more a result of price stabilisation and declining real rice prices in world markets than basic shifts in political economy.