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Abstract
The effects of population, income, prices of major inputs, and exchange rate of the U.S. dollar
on the prices of three key agricultural and food commodities (feed grains, oilseed, and fruits)
for 13 low-income countries and seven middle-income countries were evaluated. Given the
short time period, a modified seeming unrelated regression-vector autoregressive model that
incorporates the lagged exogenous variables property of time series models and the system
of equation estimation is employed in the analysis. The study finds no single factor that
persistently explains all soaring food prices as reported in the literature. The only factor that
persistently explains soaring food prices are the contemporaneous and one-year lagged
exchange rates and income.