Behaviour under imperfect competition on markets for agricultural goods in economically less developed countries, exemplified with the rubber value chain

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Kopp
• Subject Area: Agricultural Economics, Agricultural Policy, Agricultural Sociology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 289752005

The focus of the proposed project is the analysis of market processes in the context of imperfect competition on the demand side. The behaviour of economic agents at various scales will be modelled theoretically, and then tested empirically using the example of the value chain of natural rubber in the Indonesian province Jambi and the world. The different scales include at the macro level the highly concentrated international trade ('Pricing To Market' analysis of international trade flows of rubber), at the meso level the dynamics within the rubber processing industry in the Indonesian province of Jambi ('generalized maximum entropy' approach for analysing the pricing strategies of factories), and at the micro level the diversity of the interactions of small traders/middlemen with factories in the province of Jambi (game theoretical modelling of multiple levels in value chains characterised by demand side market power).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants