The effect of distance and road quality on food collection, marketing margins, and traders' wages: evidence from the former Zaire

Food price variation is typical of the food economies of many low income co untries. The presence or absence of road infrastructure is perceived to be one of the main determinants of this variation. This analysis shows that in the case of the former Zaire, food price dispersion is significant both ac ross products and across regions. It is demonstrated that transportation co sts explain most of the differences in food prices between producer regions and that road quality is an important factor in the transportation costs. However, food prices decrease relatively faster than transportation costs i ncrease and traders' wages are higher on bad roads. (C) 1999 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.