The effect of international trade on food security at Southeast Asian countries

Abstract

For decades, although the world has made significant progress in the fight against hunger, food insecurity has been considered as the top concern of countries, especially developing countries. In this study, we use panel data of 10 Southeast Asian countries for the period from 2000-2015 to evaluate the effect of international trade on food security. Applying panel data regression methods such as fixed effects model (FE), random effects model (RE), and feasible generalized least squares model (FGLS), the results show the positive impact of international trade on food security on all three aspects of food availability, stability, and access at each country. Besides, other factors such as agricultural productivity, the share of agricultural land over the total land area, percentage of farmers in total population, and inflation also affect to food security of Southeast Asian countries on several aspects. Based on the results, we propose some policy implications for Southeast Asian countries to deal with food insecurity problems.