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Abstract
Maize is a major staple food in Sub-Saharan Africa. Monthly maize
prices in Tanzania are analyzed since the country is an important maize producer
and exporter in East Africa. We analyze price transmission between the five most
important urban regions of Tanzania between 2000 and 2008 which correspond to
major maize production or consumption areas. We propose a novel method for the
analysis. The semiparametric vector error-correction model allows the partial
impact of the past deviations from price equilibria on current price changes to be
potentially nonlinear. The nonparametric estimates of these partial influences
suggest that they can be adequately modeled by linear functions.