A GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM FRAMEWORK FOR THE FOOD MARKETING SYSTEM

This paper develops a general framework for the analysis of marketing margins and the food system. It extends previous work by: (i) disaggre gating farm-level production, food processing and food wholesale/retai l activities, (ii) introducing closure with respect to factor markets and the rest of the economy, and (iii) introducing closure with respec t to production and consumption in other regions. An analysis of the i mpact of income growth on the farm-retail price spread is shown to be dependent on the source of the income growth.