Commodities in crisis: An overview of the main issues

Abstract

This introductory article provides a general review of some of the main issues facing the world commodity economy in the 1980s, particularly those arising from the dramatic collapse in the foreign exchange earnings of developing countries from their exports of primary commodities. The subject matter covered in this special issue of World Development includes not only the more traditional concerns related to short-term commodity market instability and longer-term issues such as agricultural protectionism, but also the relevance of the linkages between the commodity sector and the rest of the international economic system for the stability of the world economy as a whole. This article covers more aspects of the “commodity problem” than can be considered in detail in the subsequent articles prepared for a single issue of this journal. Nonetheless, the present introduction should make a contribution to identifying useful areas for further research, as well as focusing on some of the options in the field of international commodity policy.