Institutional change and the International Wheat Agreement. The establishment of a collusive equilibrium in the international wheat market

Green, Alexander James Stuart (2024) Institutional change and the International Wheat Agreement. The establishment of a collusive equilibrium in the international wheat market. PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Abstract

This doctoral thesis describes an institutional change in the international wheat market in the 1930’s and 1940’s. It follows the progression from an early attempt to rectify an over supplied market through an international commodity-control agreement, the 1933 International Wheat Agreement, to its final incarnation as the 1949 International Wheat Agreement, with the stated objective, “to assure supplies of wheat to importing countries and to assure markets to exporting countries at stable prices”. This was both the first and one of the most longstanding, international commodity agreements to be negotiated after WWII. This thesis asks the questions: who determines “the rules of the game” and how are they decided? The drafting and negotiation of this agreement was the endeavour of many hands: the governments of both wheat exporters and importers, international and domestic politicians and civil servants, international organisations and agencies, trade bodies, committees, councils and their secretariats, and a wide range of other experts. These negotiations took place over the course of 16 years, principally by conference or special sessions of the coordinating bodies. This thesis finds that it was the exogenous shock of the 1946 International Food Crisis, that followed World War II, when the market went from being plentifully supplied to scarcity, that was instrumental in affecting an institutional change or arrangemental innovation. The latter was designed by the economist, James Meade, as a multilateral sales and purchase agreement in which exporters guaranteed they would sell a fixed quantity of wheat at a ceiling price and importers guaranteed they would purchase a fixed quantity of wheat at a floor price. Whilst there was an elegant simplicity to Meade’s commitment mechanism, the coordinating body, the International Wheat Council, needed to work through many other details to be able to coordinate, operate and enforce the agreement.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Additional Information:	© 2024 Alexander James Stuart Green
Library of Congress subject classification:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Sets:	Departments > Economic History
Supervisor:	Roses, Joan R. and Bakker, Gerben
URI:	http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/4821

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