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The document discusses the book 'Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security and Policy,' edited by Matthias Kalkuhl, Joachim von Braun, and Maximo Torero, which explores the causes and effects of food price volatility on global food security. It emphasizes the need for a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between food markets, environmental factors, and policy responses to mitigate risks associated with price fluctuations. The book serves as a critical resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners in the field of food security and agricultural policy.

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Matthias Kalkuhl · Joachim von Braun
Maximo Torero Editors

Food Price
Volatility and Its
Implications for
Food Security
and Policy
Food Price Volatility and Its Implications
for Food Security and Policy
Matthias Kalkuhl • Joachim von Braun •
Maximo Torero
Editors

Food Price Volatility and


Its Implications for Food
Security and Policy
Editors
Matthias Kalkuhl Maximo Torero
Joachim von Braun International Food Policy Research Institute
Center for Development Research (IFPRI)
University of Bonn Washington, USA
Bonn
Germany

ISBN 978-3-319-28199-5 ISBN 978-3-319-28201-5 (eBook)


DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28201-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016931306

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016. The book is published with open access.
Open Access This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial 2.5 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/) which permits any
noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s)
and source are credited.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the work’s Creative Commons
license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if such material is not included in the work’s Creative
Commons license and the respective action is not permitted by statutory regulation, users will need to
obtain permission from the license holder to duplicate, adapt or reproduce the material.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature


The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland
Foreword

Eight years ago the global food crisis caught most governments and academic
researchers unprepared. The crisis triggered not only extensive research on drivers
of international food price shocks and volatility but also many policy interventions
and tentative institutional reform at the global and national scale. Despite the efforts
of national governments and international organizations in recent years to halve
the number of hungry people by 2015, about 800 million people still suffer from
undernutrition and many more from micronutrient deficiencies. This impedes health
and contributes to conflicts and sluggish economic development. Ending hunger
completely by 2030 as aimed for in the Sustainable Development Goals requires
a much stronger political commitment. Moreover, it needs a solid scientific base
for understanding the threats to food and nutrition security and their complex
interactions with social, environmental, and political factors. Globalization has
created a highly interconnected world where resources, information, and policies
are not constrained by national borders. Economic shocks spread quickly over entire
industries and sectors. At the same time, environmental risks triggered by climate
change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, and water scarcity as well as political
conflicts will increasingly become a force of disruption, threatening the reliability of
our global agricultural and food production system. Drastic price changes are often
the first signs indicating upcoming crises and recent calm agricultural markets can
be deceptive and lead to unjustified complacency.
Analyzing Food Price Volatility and its Implications for Food Security and Policy,
edited by Matthias Kalkuhl, Joachim von Braun, and Maximo Torero, is devoted to
the stability dimension of food security and in particular the causes, consequences,
and remedies related to extreme events in food markets. Volatility is a measure of
risk and uncertainty which, in turn, is the antagonist of security. Price volatility is
an intrinsically market-related economic concept. The economics of this book is,
however, carefully embedded into the political, agricultural, climate, and nutritional
domains. This makes the book an important contribution for the ongoing political
agenda of the international community to reduce undernutrition and enhance food
and nutrition security.
The first chapter, which is written by the editors, provides a comprehensive
overview of the recent debates, concepts, and literature and serves as an overview of
the subject of the book. Subsequent chapters emphasize the global and multi-market

v
vi Foreword

dimension of food markets and policymaking. Traditionally, harvests, stocks, and


income were considered as the major determinants of food prices. Recently, new
drivers emerged that are rooted in closer integration of food markets with energy
and financial markets. Several chapters provide new evidence on these intensified
linkages and explore the role of speculation. Another important topic of this excel-
lent book is the role of policy as a tool to reduce volatility or to increase the capacity
to cope with volatility and the potential or real consequences of poorly designed or
implemented policies. The distortive trade restrictions in 2008 and 2010 provided a
dramatic lesson. With unreliable international markets, some governments sought
to become more self-sufficient—an often expensive way to reduce vulnerability
to international market shocks. Chapter authors develop a promising third-way
alternative between reliance on international market and autarky: regional trade and
storage cooperation. While the economic gains of this alternative are high for Africa
and Southeast Asia, political and institutional challenges prevail that need to be
overcome. Trade integration and storage cooperation may be a catalyst for improved
regional policy coordination and cooperation.
The concept of food security centers on the individual and its capability to satisfy
basic nutrition and health needs. Consequently, the impact of market volatility
on households is the subject of empirical analyses in several countries that were
highly exposed to the international price shock in 2008. Besides household, farmers,
traders, and communities deal with volatile prices at the local level and develop
strategies to cope with volatility and reduce its negative impacts. By combining
microeconomic and macroeconomic analyses, the book provides a comprehensive
perspective on the manifold interactions of markets, people, and policymakers.
The book is outstanding in its methodological diversity and wide sectorial
and geographical range. The contributions range from descriptive, empirical, and
computational economic to simulation-based works. As such, it is a must-read book
to guide researchers and research-oriented practitioners in governments, NGOs, and
international organizations as well as students of agricultural, food, and nutrition
policy.
Analyzing Food Price Volatility and its Implications for Food Security and Policy
is one of the most comprehensive and interesting collections of applied state-of-the
art research on food security, risk, and uncertainty, and it will influence the research
and action agendas for many years to come.

Ithaca, New York Per Pinstrup-Andersen


Acknowledgments

The work presented in this book is the result of intensive research coopera-
tion between the Center for Development Research (ZEF) and the International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and their research partners all over the
world.
Part of the research of this book had not been possible without the support
of the Ethiopian Economics Association, in particular Assefa Admassie and Seid
Nuru Ali, of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations,
especially Anwarul Hoda and Ashok Gulati, and of the Institute of Statistical, Social
and Economic Research of the University of Ghana, headed by Felix Asante. These
institutes and persons proved to be reliable and very helpful partners for the field
research and case-study analyses.
Other work in this book depends on secondary data where FAO GIEWS is a
major provider granting us access to price, supply, and demand data for developing
countries. We would in particular acknowledge the comments, discussions, and data
support from David Hallam, Liliana Balbi, Felix Baquedano, and Paul Racionzer
from the Trade and Markets Division (EST) at FAO. We further thank Sonja Perakis
from FEWS.NET for providing additional price data.
Exchange and discussion of ongoing work at seminars at ZEF helped to advance
our research on volatility and food security substantially. We would like to thank
Nicolas Gerber, Christopher L. Gilbert, Christophe Gouel, Ulrich Hiemenz, Alisher
Mirzabaev, Neil Pearson, Simone Pfuderer, Shahidur Rashid, Randall Romero-
Aguilar, and Christian Schlag.
We are grateful to Peter Zhuang and Athene Cook for language editing and
proofreading of the book and to Tobias Heimann for formatting the chapters.
Katharina Gallant provided very helpful support for finalizing the book in its latest
stages.
Much of the research in this book was part of the research project “Volatility
in Commodity Markets, Trade and the Poor” financed by the Federal Ministry for
Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ). Additional support
came from the research project “FoodSecure” financed by the European Commis-
sion. Co-funding of particular contributions was provided by Bayer CropScience
AG and Union Investment and by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies,
Institutions, and Markets, as well as the Center for Development Research (ZEF).

vii
viii Acknowledgments

We thank all of these funders for their financial support, emphasizing that they
are not responsible for the specific content and interpretations of our research. We
also acknowledge the financial support from the BMZ for the publication of this
book.

Joachim von Braun


Matthias Kalkuhl
Maximo Torero
Contents

Part I Introduction
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security,
and Policy: An Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Matthias Kalkuhl, Joachim von Braun, and Maximo Torero

Part II Food Price Volatility at International Food


Commodity Markets
2 Volatile Volatility: Conceptual and Measurement Issues
Related to Price Trends and Volatility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Eugenio Díaz-Bonilla
3 Drivers and Triggers of International Food Price Spikes
and Volatility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Getaw Tadasse, Bernadina Algieri, Matthias Kalkuhl,
and Joachim von Braun
4 The Effects of Southern Hemisphere Crop Production
on Trade, Stocks, and Price Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Joseph W. Glauber and Mario J. Miranda
5 Food Price Changes, Price Insulation, and Their Impacts
on Global and Domestic Poverty .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Will Martin and Maros Ivanic
6 Alternative Mechanisms to Reduce Food Price Volatility
and Price Spikes: Policy Responses at the Global Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Maximo Torero
7 Worldwide Acreage and Yield Response to International
Price Change and Volatility: A Dynamic Panel Data
Analysis for Wheat, Rice, Corn, and Soybeans. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Mekbib G. Haile, Matthias Kalkuhl, and Joachim von Braun
8 Food Crisis and Export Taxation: Revisiting the Adverse
Effects of Noncooperative Aspect of Trade Policies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Antoine Bouët and David Laborde Debucquet
ix
x Contents

Part III Commodity and Financial Market Linkages


9 Directional Volatility Spillovers Between Agricultural,
Crude Oil, Real Estate, and Other Financial Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Stephanie-Carolin Grosche and Thomas Heckelei
10 A Roller Coaster Ride: An Empirical Investigation
of the Main Drivers of Wheat Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Bernardina Algieri
11 Relative Prices of Food and the Volatility of Agricultural
Commodities: Evidence for a Panel of Developing Economies . . . . . . . . 239
Carlos Martins-Filho and Maximo Torero
12 How Strong Do Global Commodity Prices Influence
Domestic Food Prices in Developing Countries? A Global
Price Transmission and Vulnerability Mapping Analysis .. . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Matthias Kalkuhl
13 Transmission of Food Price Volatility from International
to Domestic Markets: Evidence from Africa, Latin
America, and South Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Francisco Ceballos, Manuel A. Hernandez, Nicholas Minot,
and Miguel Robles

Part IV National and Regional Responses to Food


Price Volatility
14 India’s Food Security Policies in the Wake of Global Food
Price Volatility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Shweta Saini and Ashok Gulati
15 The Costs and Benefits of Regional Cooperation on Grain
Reserves: The Case of ECOWAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Lukas Kornher and Matthias Kalkuhl
16 Regional Trade and Volatility in Staple Food Markets in Africa.. . . . . 385
Ousmane Badiane and Sunday Odjo
17 ASEAN Food Reserve and Trade: Review and Prospect .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Irfan Mujahid and Lukas Kornher
18 When Do Prices Matter Most? Rice, Wheat, and Corn
Supply Response in China .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Jan Brockhaus, Jikun Huang, Jiliang Hu, Matthias Kalkuhl,
Joachim von Braun, and Guolei Yang
19 Consistency Between Theory and Practice in Policy
Recommendations by International Organizations
for Extreme Price and Extreme Volatility Situations .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Maximo Torero
Contents xi

Part V The Micro-Economics of Price Risk, Volatility


and Price Shocks: Households, Firms
and Communities
20 Access to Information and Price Expectation Errors
of Smallholder Farmers: Theory and Empirics . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513
Mekbib G. Haile and Matthias Kalkuhl
21 Coping with Food Price Shocks
in Afghanistan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543
Anna D’Souza and Dean Jolliffe
22 Hedging Seasonal Food Price Risks:
The Impact of Cereal Banking in the Gambia . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Raymond Jatta
23 Stocks and Storage Behavior of Traders in Ghana:
Insights from a Trader Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
Lukas Kornher and Felix A. Asante
Part I
Introduction
Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food
Security, and Policy: An Overview 1
Matthias Kalkuhl, Joachim von Braun, and Maximo Torero

1.1 The Relevance of Food Price Volatility

Price volatility describes the magnitude of price fluctuations or the risk of large,
unexpected price changes. The risk of extreme price events can intensify and
contribute to broader social risks in terms of food security, human development,
and political stability. The aim of this book is to investigate the causal relationships
between and the drivers of price volatility and extreme price events, in particular
their implications on food and nutrition security. This book also aims to investigate
the experiences with and implications of national and international policies aimed
at preventing and mitigating volatility.
The economic history of food price crises has been studied in detail by Abel
(1966). He found that the causes of food price crises had changed with changing
political and economic contexts, such as the transmission of crises from agriculture
to urban settings, and the prevalence of regional crises changed due more or less
to the integration of markets. Analyses of the global food price crises of the 1970s
focused on production and trade shocks (e.g., Valdes 1981), and the broader concept
of food security evolved. Revisiting food price volatility in our age is necessary
because of further contextual changes and advancements in methods of studying
cause and effect.

M. Kalkuhl () • J. von Braun


Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Torero
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC, USA

© The Author(s) 2016 3


M. Kalkuhl et al. (eds.), Food Price Volatility and Its Implications for Food Security
and Policy, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-28201-5_1
4 M. Kalkuhl et al.

Concern about food price volatility is closely connected to the concept of food
security, i.e., its four pillars of food availability, economic and physical access
to food, food utilization, and stability (vulnerability and shocks) over time (FAO
1996, 2015). The slow progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition and the role
of volatile agricultural markets in the food crises of 2007/2008 and 2010 fueled
concerns about the stability and reliability of the global food system. This book,
however, emphasizes that the abovementioned four dimensions of the food security
concept should be viewed not only as four separate building blocks but also as
a system of complex dynamic interactions. Price shock-related food and nutrition
insecurity may undermine the resilience of poor people and low-income countries
and thus exacerbate economic insecurity, often eroding societal cohesion.
Food policy is a sensitive political issue, and it is becoming increasingly so
as the world becomes more urbanized with increased concentrations of political
voice near power centers. Moreover, food policy is affected by strong normative
beliefs not only about goals—like food security—but also about instruments to
achieve these goals. Recommendations about how to deal with volatility need to
consider the specific policy context (Pinstrup-Andersen 2015). When food prices
rise, the power of political leaders may become contested. Rising onion prices
changed election outcomes in India.1 Increasing food prices caused thousands of
protesters to take the streets of Port au Prince (in 2008) and Algiers (in 2011).2
Rising food prices led the Haitian prime minister to resign from office in April
2008 and fueled the protests for a political change in several Arab countries. The
2007/2008 crisis also generated social and political turmoil in Bangladesh, Côte
d’Ivoire, Egypt, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. Several other countries saw
violent food riots, demonstrations, or social unrest as a result of rising food prices.
Beyond the anecdotal evidence and the correlation between international prices,
excessive price spikes, and food riots depicted in Fig. 1.1, recent empirical research
suggests a causal relationship between food prices and social unrest (Bellemare
2015). Many governments of developing countries are held responsible for ensuring
a certain degree of food security and decent living conditions. When these basic
requirements are eroded, governments could quickly lose their legitimacy, and
unrests and protests could arise especially in urban areas, where coordinating a
collective protest action is easy. Thus, the scope of the protests could also broaden
and trigger the demand for deeper institutional and political reforms (Costello et al.
2015).
As food prices are a sensitive political issue, it is not surprising that governments
and the G20 aim to quickly respond to increasing prices. Much of this response has
been only partly effective—or it even contributed to increasing volatility elsewhere
[see Martin and Anderson (2012) for the case of trade policies]. This is partly
based on a collective action failure to coordinate policies such that they re-enforce

1
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2013-07-25/for-indias-inflation-crisis-see-onion-prices
2
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12134307 and http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/
apr/09/11
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 5

300 10
Cerals: Share of Days with Excessive Price Spikes [in %] (Left Axis)
# Food riots in Africa (Right Axis) 9
FAO Cereals Price Index [2002-2004=100] (Left Axis)
250
8

7
200
6

150 5

4
100
3

2
50
1

0 0
2002q2
2002q3
2002q4
2003q1
2003q2
2003q3
2003q4
2004q1
2004q2
2004q3
2004q4
2005q1
2005q2
2005q3
2005q4
2006q1
2006q2
2006q3
2006q4
2007q1
2007q2
2007q3
2007q4
2008q1
2008q2
2008q3
2008q4
2009q1
2009q2
2009q3
2009q4
2010q1
2010q2
2010q3
2010q4
2011q1
2011q2
2011q3
2011q4
2012q1
2012q2
2012q3
2012q4
Fig. 1.1 Food prices, excessive volatility, and social unrests. Note: Average share of days with
excessive price spikes for maize, wheat, and rice futures returns as reported by IFPRI’s NEXQ
model (see explanation below in the text). All values per quarter. Source: Own illustration based
on data from foodsecurityportal.org (excessive volatility), Social Conflict in Africa Database
(SCAD)3 , and FAO

rather than neutralize each other. On the other hand, increasing integration of local
agricultural markets into global markets and of agricultural markets into broader
financial asset markets makes it more difficult to identify the causes of extreme
events. The traditional agricultural supply and demand fundamentals seem to have
only little explanatory power for recent price movements. Energy prices and biofuel
demand, interest rates and monetary policy, financial investments and speculation,
sudden trade restriction, or lack of information are some of the factors which are
considered to be important determinants of agricultural markets in recent times.
Without a proper understanding of the causal relations, excessive volatility can-
not be reduced effectively. This book presents research on these causal relationships,
their relevance, and policy implications to provide a better information base for
political decision makers at the national and international level.

1.2 Understanding the Linkages Between Food Security, Price


Volatility, and Extreme Events

1.2.1 The Concept of Food Security

Food security is commonly defined as a state whereby “[ : : : ] all people, at all times,
have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet
their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO 1996,
paragraph 1). The definition of nutrition security goes even beyond that of food

3
We thank Regine Weber for preparing the SCAD data.
6 M. Kalkuhl et al.

security by postulating that “[a] person is considered nutrition secure when she or he
has a nutritionally adequate diet and the food consumed is biologically utilized such
that adequate performance is maintained in growth, resisting or recovering from
disease, pregnancy, lactation and physical work.” The Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) of the post-2015 development agenda give food and nutrition security
a high priority. Despite the efforts of governments and international organizations,
the number of people affected by food and nutrition insecurity remains high, with
780 million people undernourished and about two billion malnourished (FAO 2015).
On an operational level, food security is conceptualized by the four dimensions:
availability, accessibility, utilization, and stability [see also Upton et al. (2015) for
new approaches to conceptualize food security measurements]. The availability
of food, measured by the total food supply, and access to food, measured—for
example—by real income of households (relative to food prices), are necessary
but not sufficient conditions to ensure food security. Hence, they should not be
considered as the only determinants of food security; they are only a subset of a
much broader list of causal determinants of food security (von Braun 2014). What
ultimately matters for the well-being and health of individuals is the extent to which
each person is able to meet their dietary needs (including micro- and macronutrients)
and qualitative or subjective food preferences. This ability—subsumed under the
utilization dimension—is affected by intra-household allocation and distribution
decisions, cultural or behavioral values, and complementary factors like diseases
or other circumstances that require specific diets. While utilization is the decisive
dimension for food security on the individual level, it is difficult and expensive to
measure, which hinders the use of indicators focusing on food availability (e.g., per
capita calorie supply) or accessibility (e.g., share of households with insufficient
income to meet food and nutrition demands).
The first three dimensions of the standard food security framework focus on
issues at different socioeconomic scales. The fourth pillar emphasizes the temporal
dimension—the stability of the conditions that enable individuals to meet their food
demand. The stability can be affected in various ways: harvest fluctuations (that are
often moderated by trade and storage), fluctuations in real income affecting access
to food and nutrients, and fluctuations in disease burdens (e.g., due to pandemics or
floods). In any of these cases, changes in food prices are likely to signal changes in
food security conditions. As prices are endogenous outcomes of underlying market
forces, they cannot be a fundamental cause of changing food security conditions—a
qualification that should be kept in mind and is highly important for policymaking.
High prices could signal expectations of low food availability, which could severely
threaten food security as policy intervention is limited in the short run (at least
if the scarcity arises on a global scale). High prices could, however, also signal
increasing demand for food, to which policymakers can better respond with a wide
set of instruments ranging from trade policies, taxes targeted at wealthy consumers
to transfers targeted at poor consumers. As poor people spend around two-third of
their income on food, a change in food prices implies a change in real income; the
direction of the change in real income depends on a household’s trade position:
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 7

Net sellers of food benefit from price increases, while net buyers would experience
declining real wages in the short run.
Temporary deficiencies in food access can lead to long-term, irreversible nutri-
tional damage, especially among children. For example, across several Latin
American countries, simulations of the 2007/2008 price increases showed important
reductions in calorie intake at both the national and the household levels, especially
for children from poor households below the age of two, a critical period for a
child’s growth and development (Robles and Torero 2010). In all of the Latin
American countries studied, poorer households with consumption levels that were
already below the calorie adequacy threshold showed greater reductions in calorie
intake. The long-term effects are especially detrimental to the already vulnerable
populations. Other empirical work confirmed significant nutritional impacts of
short-term disruptions in food security: Higher food prices increased the instances
of underweight children in Mozambique (Arndt et al. 2012); the prevalence of
childhood stunting increased in El Salvador after the 2008 food price increase (de
Brauw 2011); harvest failures and adverse weather events have been associated with
impeded child growth in Zimbabwe (Hoddinott and Kinsey 2001), reduced weight
in children in Côte d’Ivoire (Jensen 2000), and decreased blood concentration of
vitamin A and vitamin E in mothers in Zambia (Gitau et al. 2005). The deterioration
of nutritional status has, in turn, long-term impacts on health, stature, and cognitive
capabilities (Victora et al. 2008). Malnutrition in the form of insufficient micronu-
trient intake increases the probability of lifetime disabilities, such as blindness due
to vitamin A deficiency (Black et al. 2008).
Despite the heterogeneity in linking prices to changes in underlying food security
determinants, there are three reasons why prices are so important for understanding
and assessing food security risks: First, they are closely linked to several causal
factors of food security (supply, real income, cross-market linkages); second, they
are observed more frequently and less costly to collect than most other food security
indicators; and third, prices convey expectations about future changes and risks by
a large set of market participants, which allows researchers to exploit the large
information processing capacity of markets (Fama 1970). These three features
make price dynamics a crucial element for understanding food security risks. It
is therefore the main objective of this book to understand the stability dimension
of food security from the lens of agricultural market linkages and food prices by
studying their trends, changes, extreme spikes, and volatility. Chapter 2 provides a
detailed overview of several techniques for decomposing price series and calculating
volatility for empirical analysis. In the following section, we will briefly explain the
different concepts of volatility used in this book.

1.2.2 Food Price Volatility

In a broad sense, volatility captures the idea that prices fluctuate around a rather
stable long-term price or price trend (Hull 2012). These short-term fluctuations
may refer to daily, weekly, or monthly prices. Periods of excessively high or low
8 M. Kalkuhl et al.

commodity prices are often associated with crises as they pose a challenge to
producers, consumers, and policymakers. The concept of volatility captures the idea
of price fluctuations in two different ways: in a historical (ex-post) perspective and
in a forward-looking (ex-ante) perspective.
Ex-post volatility measures realized variability; it refers to unconditional volatil-
ity measures that do not control for lagged prices or lagged volatility. Ex-post
volatility is also typically calculated over a longer time horizon consisting of
several price observations. In contrast, dynamic models of conditional volatility use
available information at time t to provide a forecast of price volatility at time t C 1.
As conditional volatility measures change over time, they are dynamic and forward-
looking and thus able to represent changing risk perceptions.
Table 1.1 lists several measures of volatility which are grouped into two
basic approaches: (1) ex-post, or unconditional measures that assume a constant
variance in the data generating process, and (2) forward-looking (conditional or
dynamic) measures which use changes in past prices and variances to forecast
future variances. Although there is some difference between unconditional volatility
measures when considering inflation and trends, the two ex-post indicators are
correlated and not fundamentally different (Huchet-Bourdon 2011). With respect
to forward-looking volatility measures, Generalized Autoregressive Conditional
Heteroskedastic (GARCH) methods are widely used (Hull 2012). They estimate
volatility conditional on past shocks and volatility. Multivariate GARCH models
also allow volatility (risk) spillovers from other markets or commodities to be
considered (see, e.g., Rapsomanikis and Mugera 2011; Hernandez et al. 2014).
The risk of price changes can also be derived implicitly from financial market
data (Prakash 2011). Put and call options give holders the right to sell or buy a
security (e.g., a commodity futures contract) at a specified price. The higher the
expected volatility (risk of price changes), the more valuable an option becomes
because it gives the right (but not the obligation) to sell or buy at a pre-defined
price. Using the Black–Scholes option pricing formula and other observable data
(the exercise price, current price, risk-free rate, and maturity of an option), it is
possible to calculate the volatility which the market is expecting. As the Black–
Scholes formula rests on the strong assumption of log-normally distributed returns
with constant variance, it is questionable whether the formula is an accurate measure
of the market expectations on volatility. Duan (1995), for example, reconstructed
the original option pricing model to incorporate conditional volatilities. The last
column in Table 1.1 lists nonparametric volatility models that do not assume a
specific functional form for estimating volatility; these models are therefore even
more flexible and precise in forecasting volatility than parametric GARCH models.
An example of nonparametric models is the one developed by Martins-Filho et al.
(2015).
The choice of the “right” volatility measure depends on the context, data
availability, and research question. Ex-post volatility can easily be calculated for
time series with a low number of observations and/or missing observations (both
issues plague most price data from developing countries). Unconditional measures
can provide an appropriate tool for studying the impact of realized past shocks.
Table 1.1 Different measures of volatility
Ex-post volatility measures (unconditional/realized
variability) Ex-ante/forward-looking volatility and risk measures (conditional/dynamic volatility)
Standard deviation of log Coefficient of variation from Conditional volatility Implied volatility Nonparametric volatility and
returns mean or trend p (GARCH) extreme quantile models
  
V D SD Œrt  V D SDŒppt tpt n2 D P C D f  2;  rt D m .Xt / C  2 .Xt / "t
q
V
PpL C iD1 ˛i "2ni C r > q .˛jXt /
2
ˇ 
iD1 i ni
Considers constant time Using CPI deflated prices or Volatility n2 conditional on Perception of market about Nonparametric estimation of
trend of prices detrended prices pt avoids past volatilities and future volatility (price risk) volatility  2 .Xt /; extreme
bias due to inflation or long-term volatility VL return if return higher than
long-term trends the ˛-quantile
Gilbert and Morgan (2010) Bellemare (2015), Rapsomanikis and Mugera Prakash (2011) Martins-Filho et al. (2015)
Huchet-Bourdon (2011) (2011), Hernandez et al.
(2014)
 
pt
Note: rt D log pt1
(log returns)
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview
9
10 M. Kalkuhl et al.

As unconditional volatility measures assume a constant variance, they do not


explicitly model how volatility evolves over time or how future price risks might
be. Unconditional models are therefore of limited use when forecasting volatility or
price risk or when modeling risk perceptions of forward-looking agents is required.
In contrast to ex-post measures, they typically require more data and elaborate time
series models, which may limit their applicability when data is sparse. However,
the choice of the appropriate volatility measure also depends on how agents form
their expectations about future price risk. While the rational expectation framework
provides a useful benchmark, expectation formation in information-constrained
environments, which is often the case in developing countries, might substantially
deviate from this model.

1.2.3 Extreme Events

Extreme events refer to “unusual” events that are unlikely to occur frequently and
whose occurrence can have major adverse impacts. The condition that extreme
events are rare (or have been rare in the past) is important: Because their occurrence
lies outside the sphere of normality, it is difficult (and expensive) to prepare for
and cope with them (Sarris 2014). This difficulty does not only refer to individuals,
firms, or public institutions (governments) but also to markets that are not always
able to provide insurance against extreme events (e.g., Jaffee and Russell 1997).
A common way to conceptualize extreme events is to relate them to higher-order
quantiles of a probability distribution, as illustrated in Fig. 1.2. Typically, events
outside a certain quantile (gray-shaded area) are classified as extreme events. As
they are so rare, even in countries with developed financial systems, insurances
are not available. Whenever (private) insurances are not available, public insurance
through government programs or policies might increase welfare. This includes also
the case whereby a government alters the shape of the probability distribution, for
example, due to public stockholding programs that prevent extreme price shocks.
As insurance is costly and can be impaired by moral hazard and adverse selection
problems, not all events should be covered by insurance (or not all volatility should
be reduced through government intervention). This is indicated by the risk retention
layer, in which households or societies can handle price changes. In practice, it is
often challenging to determine the thresholds between the risk layers and optimal
levels of interventions. They depend on risk preferences, development of insurance
markets, self-insurance and coping possibilities, and the costs of insurance.
A common threshold used in statistical analysis is, for example, the 95 %
quantile. This means, on average, only 5 % of the observed price changes will be
above that threshold. Given the critical threshold, classifying an event as extreme
requires knowing the variance of the probability distribution, i.e., the volatility.
This is where the different concepts of volatility discussed above become relevant.
Depending on the volatility measure used, a significant price increase, such as a
30 % increase within 1 month, may or may not be considered as excessive. With the
aim of developing a statistically consistent measure of excessive volatility, Martins-
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 11

relative frequency

markets break down markets break down


distress and crises distress and crises

extremely low mean extremely high


price changes

risk retention layer

market insurance layer

Fig. 1.2 Risk layers and extreme events. Source: Own illustration based on World Bank (2005)
and Sarris (2014)

Filho et al. (2015) have developed the nonparametric extreme quantile (NEXQ)
model that identifies extreme price variability based on a dynamic evolution of
daily returns over time using historical data going back to 1954. The model is then
combined with the extreme value theory to estimate higher-order quantiles of the
return series, allowing any particular realized return (i.e., effective return in the
futures market) to be classified either as extremely high or not.4

1.3 Conceptual Framework of Volatility, Food Security


Impacts, and Policy Responses

Various chapters of this book deal with specific subsets of underlying causes of
food price volatility and impacts on food security. Figure 1.3 depicts the broader
conceptual framework embracing the subsequent analyses. As already mentioned,
food price volatility is deeply related to markets where goods and services are
exchanged and where prices are formed. Food markets cannot be considered in
isolation: Spatially separated markets are linked through trade; food markets are
influenced by commodity, asset, and financial markets; and these, in turn, influence

4
The application of this volatility measure to most relevant agricultural futures contracts is
publicly available under www.foodsecurityportal.org/policy-analysis-tools/excessive-food-price-
variability-early-warning-system
12 M. Kalkuhl et al.

National governments & international institutions (FAO, WFP, G20)…

supply… frame…

Public goods & services Intermediaries & private services


Infrastructure & information Traders & stockholders
Social protection Insurance companies & banks
Public stocks Commodity (futures) exchanges

Impact on risk management Impact on market risk Impact on risk coping

Exchange on international and local markets

Producers Consumers
Commercial farmers Food prices Wage earners
Subsistence farmers Subsistence farmers
Weather and pests Labor market shocks

Inputs
Processors
Fertilizer Commodity prices Food & feed
Energy
Bioenergy
Capital
Energy prices
Macroeconomic shocks

Governmental institutions Financial investors


Asset prices
Policy misbehavior Financial market shocks

Fig. 1.3 Conceptual framework of the casual impacts of price volatility. Source: Own illustration

trading and allocation decisions of actors that also engage in food markets. Because
of the complex interlinkages and interactions between several actors and economic
sectors, food prices are not the mere result of farmers’ supply and consumers’
demand, and price volatility is not solely determined by harvest and income shocks.
Food and feed processors form part of the agricultural value chain, as do biofuel
refineries. Seeds, fertilizers, crop protection, and machinery are important inputs
in the agricultural production process which increase productivity but may also
increase financial risk because input investments have to be paid out of uncertain
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 13

harvest revenues (Dercon and Christiaensen 2011). Governments and parastatal


institutions intervene in markets by changing tariffs, imposing export restrictions or
by holding stocks, and selling or buying grains (Demeke et al. 2009). Discretionary
intervention can increase uncertainty and, thus, volatility.
The recent price booms led to a large debate on the role of speculation on
commodity futures markets in contributing to price spikes. Speculation should not
be mistaken for illegal market manipulation; it rather describes risky economic
activities (buying, selling, or investing) which are associated with the expectation of
future gains. Agricultural commodity prices are inherently volatile due to uncertain
production and demand. Futures markets are a tool to hedge against this risk as it
allows sellers as well as buyers to agree on a fixed price for a (physical) transaction
that takes place in the future. Thus, farmers can already sell their harvest at planting
time at the (then prevailing) price stipulated in a futures contract, which reaches
maturity after the harvest. The futures contract therefore transfers the price risk
from the farmer to the buyer of the contract. If the buyer is a commercial trader or
physical hedger (who trades physical grains or processes them), they typically also
want to reduce exposure to price risk by fixing the price in advance. The buyer (as
well as the seller) can, however, also be a non-commercial trader who accepts the
price risk because they are speculating that the price change would be favorable.
It is often believed that such speculation reduces price volatility because rational
profit-maximizing investors’ buy contracts when prices are low and sell when prices
are high. For example, this view was prominently adopted by Friedman (1953).
However, economic theory is not unambiguous regarding this point, even under
the assumption that speculators are rational and profit maximizing (see Hart and
Kreps 1986). Other critics of speculation have referred to price developments that
are beyond market fundamentals, so-called bubbles, that are caused by irrational
or (trend-following) herd behavior or otherwise caused large inflows of speculative
money (e.g., Masters 2008; UNCTAD 2011).
Agricultural commodities have become part of a diversified portfolio of financial
investors. According to BarclayHedge, Commodity assets under management have
increased from US$41.3 billion in 2001 to US$330 billion in 2012 and 2013
(World Bank 2015). The so-called “financialization” hypothesis claims that volatile
liquidity flows and rebalancing of portfolios have caused commodity markets to
be more exposed to shocks and price movements at other financial markets (Basak
und Pavlova 2014). Holding grains for financial portfolio diversification may not
necessarily increase grain price volatility (Vercammen and Doroudian 2014), and
empirical studies have yet to reach a consensus about the impacts of speculation
and financialization on volatility (Brunetti et al. 2011; Irwin and Sanders 2012;
Tadesse et al. 2014); however, some studies have found indications of volatility
transmission (Tang und Xiong 2012). While this debate continues, it is important
to note that futures markets (that involve also the participation of risk-loving
speculators as contracting party to risk-averse hedgers) are crucial to coordinate
supply and demand over time. By doing so, they generally tend to reduce volatility
(Jacks 2007), although they might also create the opportunity for exacerbating price
spikes in extreme market conditions.
14 M. Kalkuhl et al.

Because of the increasing market interlinkages across spatial and sectoral scales,
understanding market risks and price volatility has become more complex. There is
also the popular notion that market integration increases volatility, but there is little
compelling evidence supporting the notion: Volatility of international commodity
prices is not high compared to historical levels (see Chap. 2 by Díaz-Bonilla and
Jacks et al. 2011). Also in African countries, volatility has not increased in the
last decade (Minot 2014). Linking spatially separated markets, trade allows excess
supply to be exported and grains to be imported in times of need. Diverting grains to
biofuel production can reduce volatility and help stabilize food prices if conversion
quantities are anticyclical to food prices.
However, export markets for all staple commodities—rice, maize, wheat, and
soybeans—are highly concentrated in a few countries or very thin (i.e., only a
small share of production is traded). In the case of both maize and rice, the top
five producers account for more than 70 % of the global production, and the
top five exporters account for about 80 % of total world exports. For wheat, the
top five producers and exporters account for about 50 and 60 % of the global
production and exports, respectively. These high levels of concentration imply that
the world’s capacity for coping with geographical risk is limited. Any weather shock
or exogenous shock to production in these countries will immediately have an effect
on global prices and price volatility.
Although market integration may reduce rather than increase volatility, it
increases volatility spillovers. This makes it more difficult to respond to volatility
and crises as causal effects become more complex and interlinked with the wider
macroeconomic environment. Policy response cannot focus only on storing and
releasing grains for balancing supply and demand, e.g., using public stocks.
Governments affect the performance of markets through the infrastructure and
information services they provide (Kornher and Kalkuhl 2013). By affecting
inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates, monetary policy influences commodity
storage, trade, and financial investments (Frankel 2006). Contract enforcement,
rule of law, and effective government administration create the conditions for
intermediaries to provide insurance and capital, thereby facilitating resource
allocation and risk assessment (Levine et al. 2000; Conning and Udry 2007).
Governments’ commitment to predefined trade principles allows private traders and
stockholders to operate and smooth prices by exploiting arbitrage possibilities.
Finally, social protection schemes could increase the resilience of households to
cope with price and income shocks. Although social protection schemes and access
to insurance markets have no direct impact on volatility, they reduce the negative
welfare impacts of volatility and thus the need to reduce volatility by other measures.
Figure 1.3 focuses on the causal linkages between policies, markets, and agents.
For greater clarity, the figure omits several feedback effects from volatility to the
economy that are nevertheless relevant. Volatility itself influences the behavior
of governments, producers, consumers, processors, and traders who might have
difficulties in coping with excessive volatility. This can, in turn, lead to further policy
misbehavior and misallocation of resources. Increased volatility may signal risks
and thereby serve as a disincentive to investors, reducing the generally positive price
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 15

response in production. The sensitivity of political systems and regime changes


to food prices has been mentioned. An example of an empirical analysis of the
sensitivity can be found in Bellemare (2015).
Commodity price volatility and macroeconomic market risk can have severe
long-term impacts on economic growth and development (Ramey and Ramey 1995;
van der Ploeg and Poelhekke 2009), in particular in countries with underdeveloped
financial institutions (Aghion et al. 2009). Food insecurity and insufficient nutrition
reduce health status and human capital, affecting labor productivity and economic
output (Fogel 1994; Behrman and Rosenzweig 2004; Gyimah-Brempong and
Wilson 2004; Weil 2007). Higher price volatility is also associated with greater
potential losses for producers and poor subsistence farmers: Because high volatility
implies large, rapid changes in prices, it becomes more difficult for producers to
make optimal decisions on the allocation of inputs into the agricultural sector.
Consequently, in a period of high price volatility, producers may use fewer inputs
like fertilizer and high-quality seeds in their production, and they may dampen their
investments in areas that improve productivity—which could adversely affect their
income and the overall availability of food.

1.4 Contribution and Contents of the Book

In the subsequent chapters of this book, the problem of volatile food prices is
approached from different perspectives to provide a comprehensive treatment of
the subject at different geographical, political, and economic scales. This multilayer
approach implies some overlap of specific topics: The role of policies, for example,
is addressed in almost all chapters; likewise, the analysis of drivers and impacts of
food price volatility cannot always be clearly separated due to various bidirectional
linkages at different scales. Nevertheless, we choose to structure the book and
the discussion of its content in five parts, starting with this introductury chapter
as the first part. The second part focuses on the causes, drivers, and international
policy responses that moderate or accelerate volatility. The third part provides in-
depth analyses of specific market interlinkages between asset classes, commodities,
and spatially separated markets. The fourth part of this book elaborates on several
case studies analyzing the role of governments or supranational regional bodies to
manage price volatility. The final part sheds light on how households, traders, and
communities are affected by volatility and how they cope with price volatility and
price shocks from a microeconomic perspective.
The book combines policy-relevant and applied research questions with
advanced empirical and quantitative analysis methods. It differs from other relevant
editions, which have focused mainly on international agricultural commodity
markets (Piot-Lepetit and M’Barek 2011), or on theoretical and methodological
works with little empirical analysis (Munier 2012). The scope of this book goes
beyond a recent book by Chavas et al. (2014) by including microeconomic analysis,
case studies, and explicit policy analysis. The book approaches the topic from a
variety of ways, from on-the-ground field research to high-frequency time series
16 M. Kalkuhl et al.

analysis, and involves researchers who are close to political decision processes.
Finally, it provides policymakers and applied researchers not only with answers to
urgent questions related to food price volatility but also with tools and concepts to
analyze and mitigate volatility in related contexts.

Part II: Food Price Volatility at International-Level Food Commodity Markets


The second part of the book analyzes international agricultural markets, price
volatility, and policy responses on an international level. It thus provides a broad
overview of the major determinants and impacts. Chapter 2 by Eugenio Díaz-
Bonilla examines different techniques to decompose price dynamics into long-
term trends, medium-term cycles, spikes, and volatility for further analysis. It
also describes ways to scale price developments by using appropriate deflators
related to inflation, exchange rates, or national welfare impacts. Chapter 3 by
Getaw Tadesse, Bernardina Algieri, Matthias Kalkuhl, and Joachim von Braun
examines the drivers of prices of the three major food commodities—wheat, maize,
and soybeans—using monthly data from 1986 to 2009. It combines agricultural
fundamental variables typically used in empirical analyses (production, demand,
stocks) with newly emerging determinants of commodity prices like energy prices,
speculative activities, and financialization linkages. Unlike existing work that used
only agricultural fundamentals (typically on an annual basis) or financial market and
futures market data (on a weekly basis), the large set of variables allows the relative
contribution of these two groups of drivers to international price spikes and price
volatility to be explored.
In Chap. 4, Joe Glauber and Mario Miranda develop an intra-annual rational
equilibrium trade and storage model for the global soybean market. The model
considers the different seasonal production patterns in the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres. Fitting their model to historic production and trade data and using
USDA forecasts for future trends, they show how international trade exhibits
increasing seasonal patterns. A more balanced production in the Northern and
Southern Hemispheres further reduces volatility. Finally, the intra-annual modeling
exercise cautions against the practice of summing up ending stocks from several
countries with different seasonal production to obtain an aggregate indicator of
global stocks. Chapter 5 by Will Martin and Maros Ivanic discusses the impact
of food price spikes on poverty rates for different time scales. In the short run,
price increases lead to increased poverty rates in most countries as many poor
households are net buyers of food. In the medium to long run, higher commodity
prices may also lead to higher wages due to agricultural–labor market linkages.
This, in turn, would also reduce poverty for many net buyers of food who are wage
receivers, leading to lower poverty rates in most countries and on the global scale.
Anticyclical trade-related policies have been used by many countries to insulate
their domestic markets from international shocks; these policies are collectively
ineffective. Countries should instead establish or expand safety nets to provide
assistance for adversely affected households.
Continuing with policy analysis, Maximo Torero discusses the role of the G20
in responding to the international food crisis in Chap. 6. He reviews the prevailing
1 Volatile and Extreme Food Prices, Food Security, and Policy: An Overview 17

policy approaches to deal with volatile prices before the 2007/2008 crisis and the
new proposals that emerged during and after the crisis. These measures focus on
improving the information base by employing new instruments to make trade more
reliable or market tools to hedge against international price shocks. Both physical
and virtual emergency reserves are considered as potentially effective measures to
prevent crises, but the technical and political aspects of implementing such reserves
remain challenging. In Chap. 7, using national crop calendars from major global
crop producers, Mekbib Haile, Matthias Kalkuhl, and Joachim von Braun construct
a global panel data set on acreage, yield, and production response to international
prices prevailing at the respective planting time. The empirical analysis confirmed
that globally, producers respond positively to own crop prices and negatively to
competing crop prices and price risk (volatility). Applying the empirical model
to the recent price and volatility developments revealed that the global supply
response to higher crop prices was substantially weakened by high fertilizer prices
and price risk. Hence, excessive volatility also has negative long-run consequences
for global production expansion, which in turn may contribute to high prices and
high vulnerability of the global food system to harvest shocks.
Chapter 8 by Antoine Bouët and David Laborde focuses on trade policy and,
more specific, export taxes in times of food crisis. Export restrictions are both
a response of exporting countries to high international food prices and a driver
of additional international price increases. The authors elaborate on the different
motives behind applying export taxes and analyze and assess their quantitative
role in the 2007/2008 food crisis. Although anticyclical trade policy is a rational
individual choice to insulate domestic prices from international prices, collective
action by different countries partly neutralizes this effect while leading to large
market distortions. As existing WTO rules and legislation are not capable of solving
this collective action failure, alternative mechanisms need to be implemented, e.g.,
on a plurilateral base or by introducing a Pigouvian tax that reflects the external
social costs of anticyclical trade policy.

Part III: Commodity and Financial Market Linkages


The third part provides in-depth analyses of specific market interlinkages by ana-
lyzing volatility spillovers and transmission of price spikes between different asset
classes (beyond commodities) or between countries (for specific commodities).
Chapter 9 by Stephanie-Carolin Grosche and Thomas Heckelei calculates the
directional spillovers of intraday volatility between agricultural, crude oil, real
estate, bond, stock, and currency markets. The authors examined how market
spillovers evolved since 1999; index-linked exchange-traded products have increas-
ingly gained popularity since then. While overall cross-asset spillovers hardly
changed during the period of the first financial crisis and during downturn in equity
markets between March 2000 and December 2003, the market experienced a strong
increase in volatility spillovers during the second crisis period between July 2007
and December 2012. The higher degree of market integration and interaction also
affected agricultural commodities, in particular corn and wheat. Focusing on the
wheat sector, Bernardina Algieri analyzes in Chap. 10 the role of weather events,
18 M. Kalkuhl et al.

grain stocks, monetary policy, speculation, and financial markets. A vector error
correction analysis was used to confirm that a multitude of factors, including
speculation (measured by Working’s speculation index), monetary policy, oil prices,
and global demand changes, are decisive for the wheat price formation. In Chap.
11, Carlos Martins-Filho and Maximo Torero develop a nonparametric model to
analyze the impact of volatility on international markets on relative food prices in
developing countries. They found that higher international wheat price volatility
is often associated with higher relative domestic bread prices and cereal prices,
while international maize price volatility affects relative meat prices in developing
countries. As the direct welfare impacts of volatility are difficult to measure, their
approach provides a useful alternative way to study the welfare impacts of excessive
volatility.
In Chap. 12, Matthias Kalkuhl combines comprehensive price transmission
analysis with data on poverty rates in countries to examine the exposure and
vulnerability of the global poor to international price spikes. The analysis relies on
an alternative grain prices index that consists of prices of the major domestic staples
and is therefore a relevant proxy for food expenditures of the poor. The consideration
of a large set of international reference prices, including prices of futures contracts
at major exchanges, allowed for the identification of the markets that are relevant
for price transmission in a specific country. Mapping transmission elasticities onto
poverty rates showed that a large share of the global poor lives in countries where
international market shocks have significant impacts on domestic food markets.
Chapter 13 by Francisco Ceballos, Manuel A. Hernandez, Nicholas Minot, and
Miguel Robles employed a multivariate GARCH to analyze the transmission of
price volatility from major international commodity markets to domestic food
products in 27 developing countries. The results indicate that African countries
exhibit on average higher domestic price volatility. Volatility transmission from
international to local markets is heterogeneous among commodities and countries.
Maize prices showed the highest volatility transmission to Africa, rice prices to
Asian country, and wheat prices to Latin America. The analysis suggest that not
only do prices adjust through spatially separated agricultural markets but also price
risks—i.e., the likelihood of experiencing strong future price changes—of local food
markets are affected by international markets.

Part IV: National and Regional Policy Response to Volatility


The fourth part of this book contains studies analyzing the role of governments
or supranational regional bodies in managing price volatility. In Chap. 14, Shweta
Saini and Ashok Gulati describe the role of Indian agricultural policies in increasing
domestic grain production and providing affordable food for poor people. These
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2007/2008, but prices co-move over longer periods of time as India also frequently
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to food, as formulated in the National Food Security Act, and on fostering further
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LIDIA - LIPPARINI I SO cavai?... I so cavei?... I capelli della
Vincenza tinti?... Avea i capei lunghi di finissimoro, dice il Valerini. O
eran questi del Rossi comici non a noi pervenuti ? Eppure V unione
di questi tre nomi, Vincenza, Lidia, Orazio, potevan benissimo essere
insieme a quell'epoca : Orazio era il Rossi stesso, autore della
Fiammella. E se Lidia era nella Compagnia con la Vincenza, forse
dovette ella entrare un po', per dispetto, invidia, e gelosia, nell'
attossicamento dell'Armani? Forse la Lidia è nome di guerra preso
dopo la morte dell' Armani, la quale sappiamo chiamarsi così
appunto nelle commedie? Naturalmente il Garzoni allora avrebbe
parlato di lei, morta l'Armani, poiché, rimpiazzatala nel ruolo di prima
donna in commedia, ebbe modo soltanto allora, sotto il nome di
Lidia, di spiegare i suoi forti talenti artistici: assai diversi, veramente,
da quelli dell'Armani, se stiamo ai due ritratti di virilità e di maestà
nell'una, del Valerini, di gentilezza e di grazia nell'altra, del Garzoni.
Ma chi si nascondeva sotto questo nome di Lidia?... Nessuna
risposta. Limbergher Gioacchino. Fu tra' comici della Compagnia
italiana in Dresda, e sosteneva il ruolo di amoroso. Prese parte il
carnevale del 1749 alla rappresentazione Amor non ha riguardi (V.
Bastona Marta), e nel 7 febbraio 1752 a quella del Zoroastro (V.
Arbes (D') Cesare), in cui sosteneva il personaggio di Abramane,
primo sacerdote degli Idoli. Gioacchino Limbergher, o Limperger, fu
de' peggiori se non il peggiore della compagnia. Così ce lo descrive
l'anonimo critico di Stuttgart nel suo Contributo alla storia e alla
prosperità del Teatro: Gioacchino Limperger è giovane ; né arte, né
natura lo innalzano. È di media statura, magro, e di una fisonomia
molto stupida. La andatura, V azione, la parola sono forzate ;
dovrebbe imparare a ballare. Le mani e i piedi gli sono d' impaccio ;
e a volte non sa come muoverli. Non par fatto per il teatro, n suo
ruolo é di un giovane amoroso che ha poca intelligenza, ed é ciò che
gli si conviene. Lipparìni Angelo, nato a Bologna il 1 801, si diede
giovanissimo all'arte, esordendo in compagnie secondarie nel ruolo
4. — / Comici italiani. VoL JI.
LIPPARINI di amoroso: e tanto vi progredì, che nel biennio
'28-'2g lo veàì\z.mo primo attore assoluto nella rinomata Compagnia
di Lucrezia e Amalia Bettini. Sposata poi la vedova dell'attore larcos,
Marietta Borgì, pregiata servetta, formò compagnia, mantenendosi
per quasi un trentennio uno de' più esperti capocomici. E dice il
Colomberti nelle sue note che la Compagnia del Lipparìni, fton mai
primaria per celebri attori, non/u mai secondaria a nessun altra per
piacere al.pubI blico delle primarie città d'Italia. In essa nonostante,
al fianco della Manetta, già di per sé un de' più grandi ornamenti,
militarono la Santoni, la Fumagalli, il Coltellini, il Marini. Avanti Ìl '60
il Lipparini, abbandonato il teatro, si restituì in patria, dove morì sul
cadere del '79. Lasciò molti figli dedicati all'arte paterna, tra' quali
uno che sposò Lucrezia Bettini, figlia della celebre Amalia. Lipparìnì-
Borgi Marietta, moglie del precedente, già vedova dell'artista
Giovanni larcos, nacque Ìl 1810, e morì a Bologna l'ottobre del 1880.
Principal colonna della compagnia di suo marito, fu con lui dal '29 al
'60, sorgente non interrotta di lauti guadagni. Dice il Colomberti che
< nulla potevasi vedere sulla scena dì più grazioso. Il di lei spirito, le
grazie, la civetteria decente e gastigata, una profonda conoscenza
del carattere della sua parte, e tutto ciò unito ad una figura non alta
ma proporzionata perfettamente, congiunta ad un bel volto adorno
da due occhi nerissimi pieni di malizia, e ad una voce, benché un
poco nasale, gratissima all'orecchio: tutte queste belle doti la
rendevano la favorita del Pubblico. Non si creda però che il Lipparini
s'illudesse sul merito della moglie: egli se ne serviva in caso di
bisogno anche come Prima Donna, ma non dimenticava che questa é
il vero pernio di una Compagnia »
LIVINI - LOCATELLI 2 -/ Livini Ferdinando. Artista di molto
pregio per le parti di primo attore così in commedia come in
tragedia, poi di brUlaìite, nacque a Pisa il 1790 da civili parenti. Fatti
gli studi in quella Università, si diede all'arte comica, la quale
esercitò dapprima in compagnie di second' ordine, poi in quelle
primarie di Taddei, di Raftopulo, e di Tessari, Prepiani e Visetti ai
Fiorentini di Napoli il 1825, sostituito poscia dalGottardi, nel qual
tempo abbracciò il ruolo del brillaìite. Datosi poi al capocomicato,
percorse il Regno di Napoli e Sicilia, ma con non troppa fortuna. Morì
a Foggia nel 1845. Locatelli Domenico, detto Trivellino in teatro,
recitava mirabilmente le parti di spiritoso intrigante, in costume di
arlecchino senza la maschera. Dovè recarsi a Parigi verso il 1644,
perchè il 9 gennaio dell' anno seguente fé' battezzare nella chiesa di
Saint Germain-l'Auxerrois, un figlio per nome Carlo Francesco, eh'
egli ebbe dalla moglie Luisa Gabrielli (comica anch'essa, sotto nome
di Lucilla, che recitò molto applaudita nella Finta pazza di Giulio
Strozzi), tenutogli a battesimo da Francesco di Bassompierre,
maresciallo di Francia, e da Anna Dufay per conto dell'alta e potente
principessa Carlotta-Margherita di Montmorency, principessa di
Condè. Non c'è male! Domenico Locatelli era amato e stimato alla
Corte, e il padre di GueuUette che lo senti recitare, affermava essere
stato valentissimo artista. Del '48 compose in francese l'argomento
della commedia italiana, Rosaura Imperatrice di Costantinopoli,
recitata poi al Petit Bourbon soltanto nel '58. Ma del '51 e '52 lo
vediamo in Italia, come appare dalla supplica del io agosto 1651 da
Verona, di cui s'è parlato al nome di Fiala Giuseppe Antonio; e da
queste lettere che riferisco inedite dall'Archivio di Modena, in cui
troviamo anche notizia della moglie Gabbrielli: Ser.rao Sig.r* mio
S.^e e Prone, sempre Coll."»o Hieri mandai un piego per un Padre
zoccolante a V. A. Ser.m* con le lettere dell'ordinario di venetia e di
milano sono anciosissimo di sapere se V. A. S. le babbi hauute per
mia quiete.
28 LOCATELLI Triuellino hieri sotto la parola del S.i* Co.
Baiardi fu attacchato alla corda in Piazza, e poi fu rilasciato per il
manchamento connesso l'altra sera, e recitò hiersera. Oitauio è
ritirato nel Carmine e non se lasciato trouare, che ha timore di
peggio, ma S. A. S. è addirato contro di lui, e più d'ogn' altro un
Nobile venetìano, che si trouaua in modena che haueua seguito
lucilia moglie di Triuellino nella quale è fieramente inamorato, parti la
mattina subito da modena questo Nobile cum mali pensieri uerso
Otlauio, Che è quanto e sucesso sin' hora e ui sia dì nono, e laccio
hum.^^ et oseq.n^*^ riuerenza a V. A. Ser.ni^ Modena li 3 febraio
1652, Di V. A. Ser.ma Hum.o e «lev ™o Scr.« oseq «0 sempre
Alessandro Superchi. Ser.nio Sig.r« mio Sig.»^ e Pron. sempre
CoU.nio Questa passata notte alle X hore mi sono comparse le
lettere dì V. A. S. e in conformità de suoi da me ambiti comandi ho
recapitato subito la sua al S. Sassi; quella della S. marchese
Constanzo questa mattina. Hiersera i comici nell' ultimo atto della
comedia uenerono un pocho alle mani, cioè Triuelino e Ottauio
dentro pero, e dicono che fosse Triuellino che dasse un pugno ad
ottauio. che subito ciò seguito Triuellino uenne fuori senza maschera
e domandò perdonanza allo Ser.ino s. P.o che si trouaua alla
comedia, sin hora non si è ueduto alcuna dimostratione di castigho,
e si spera anchora che S. A. li perdoni. Inuio a V. A. S. le annesse
littere uenute di venetia e portate dall' ordinario di milano, Che sarà
il fine col fargli hum.* et osseq.i^A riuerenza. Modena li 2 febraio
i6s2. Di V. A. S. Hum.o e deu.»® Ser. uero e oseq.™» Alessandro
Superchi. Tornò poi nel '53 a Parigi (vedi il brano di lettera del 1 6
agosto nella Muse historìque di Loret, riferita al nome di Adami
Beatrice), sposò il 9 giugno del '65 in seconde nozze e alla presenza
di Cristoforo Contugi detto l'Orvietano, di Giuseppe Giaratoni, Pierot,
e di altri, Maria di Creil vedova di Francesco de Houpy. Sotto questa
data abbiamo un ordine di pagamento dal tesoro reale a Domenico
Locatelli di lire 1 200 per la sua pensione dell'anno stesso. Morì a
cinquantotto anni il 26 aprile del '71 e fu sepolto il dì dopo nella
chiesa del convento dei Grands-Augustins. Era nato dunque il '13, e
andò in Francia la prima volta a trentadue anni. Robinet,
continuatore della Muse historìque di Loret, così annunzia la morte di
Locatelli nella sua lettera del 2 maggio '71 : La Parque souvent très-
cruelle, (o justes cieux ! quelle nouvelle !) par un tour traitre Oc fort
vilain,
LOCATELLI - LOLLI 29 nous vient d'enlever Trivelin, qui
dedans la troupe italique, etoii un si charmant comique: elle a fait ce
tour, par dépit comme je crois, de maint repit qu'il falloit que la
maricaude, qui ne veut pas que l'on la fraude, accordàt, sans nul
doute, à ceux qui voyoient ce facétieux, lequel leur iiispirant la joye,
lui ravissoit ainsi sa proye. O vous, qu'il a fait vivre ainsi, daignez
donc en lisant ceci, faire pour lui quelque prière, c'est le raoins que
vous puissiez faire. Pel ritratto e costume di Locatelli, V. Cantù Carlo.
Lodovico da Bologna. (V. Bianchi De Ludovico). LoUi Eustachio.
Recitava il 1650-51 nella Compagnia del Duca di Modena le parti di
Zanni sotto il nome di Fichetto. Di lui non abbiamo altre notizie che
queste rintracciate in alcune lettere dell'Archivio di Modena, fra cui la
seguente allegata a un'altra del comico Nelli, che riferisco intera: Al
nome di Dio adi 15 Aprile 165 1 in Bologna. Noi sottoscritti Comici
facciamo fede come sono uenute da Padona tre lettere dirette a
jichetto nostro compagno, scritte da Cauaglierì di colà, con le quali ci
persuadono a non andare a recitare in quella Città, altrimenti
scoreremo grani pericoli per essersi diuisa la Città nel prethendere,
chi la nostra Compagnia, e chi quella della Sig.^a Armellina, che per
ciò ci consigliano a non andarui per non mettere a rischio la ulta
d'uno di noi ; le quali tre lettere se gli è ritirato a se un Cauagliere
Bolognese hauendoci imposto il non palesare ne lui, ne chi ha scritto
le suddette tre lettere. In fede di che noi tutti habbiamo sottoscritto
per far conoscere, che è la uerìtà, e non inuenzione, ne della Sig.^a
Angiola, ne del Dottore suo marito ecc. io ISABELLA FRANCHINI
detta Colofibina afermo quanto di sopra. Io Bernard.^ Coris detto
Siluio comico affermo quanto di sopra si contiene. Io Eustachio lolli
fichetto affermo quanto di sopra. Io Gio. Andrea Zanotti detto
Ottauio affermo ecc. Io Giuseppe Albani detto Pantalone affermo. Io
Giacinto Bbndinelli detto ValP affermo ecc.
30 LOLLI Ma il Duca di Modena non si lasciò intimidire dalle
minaccie di quei cavalieri, e die ordini, col mezzo dell' Obizzi, al
Podestà di Padova, perchè senz'altro la sua compagnia si recasse a
recitar colà, com' era già stabilito. Ai quali ordini seguì la seguente
lettera dell' Obizzi : Ser.n»o mio Signore Ho presentata la lettera di V.
A. al Sig.r Luigi Molino bora nostro Podestà, col quale non ho hauuto
mestieri d'accompagnamenti di parole per ìndnrlo a seruir V. A.
professandoli egli, come sa, grandissima diuozione, e credo non
rispondere se non l' ordinario che uiene in riguardo di douer mandar
la lettera in Senato per le loro strette proibizioni. Veramente io come
quello che suol prouedere ogni anno questa città di comici, non
sapendo la mente di V. A. hauea promesso il luogo coli' assenso de'
Rettori alla compagnia di Parma, ma subito riccuuti i commandi di V.
A. ho scritto, che si pronedano, e pertanto la supplico deuotamente
a commandar a Fichetto^ e compagni che siano qui per 1' ottaua di
Pasqua, e m' inchino a V. A. humilissimamente. Di Padoua l'ultimo
d'aprile 165 1. Di V. A. S. humiiis8.™o e fcdeliss."® Ser.»* Pio Enea
degli Obizzi. Di fuori : ai Duca di Modena. L'avere scritto quelle tre
lettere accennate a Fichetto, e non ad altri, e l'avere scritto T Obizzi
di < comandare a Fichetto e compagni, ecc. ecc. » prova mi pare
che il Lolli avesse in quella compagnia principalissima parte. Lolli
Giovan Antonio. Abbiamo in molte lettere dell'Archivio di Modena
precise notizie di questo comico, il quale fu rinomatissimo artista
sotto la maschera del Dottore, e col nome teatrale di Dottor
Brent'mo, a differenza del suo omonimo Giovan Angiolo Lolli che
sotto la stessa maschera fu celebre in Francia col nome di Dottor
Baloardo. La prima notizia troviamo in una lettera del 1 66 1 , che ci
fa sapere come innanzi a quel tempo il Dottor Brentino facesse parte
della Compagnia del Principe Alessandro Farnese. È lo stesso Duca di
Modena che si rivolge al Cardinal Legato di Bologna, pregandolo di
chiamare a sé il Lolli e di persuaderlo con belle promesse ad
accettare l'invito di far parte della Compagnia del Duca, al che pare
si fosse mostrato renitente.
LOLLI 31 Da un'altra lettera del 30 giugno '76 di Don
Alfonso d' Este si apprende come il Dottor LoUi fosse in Francia. Ma
il '77 era a Verona al servizio del Duca di Modena. Il '79 si trovò a
recitar nientemeno che a Londra.... con disastrosi resultati, ch'egli
stesso ampollosamente e comicamente ci apprende in una preziosa
lettera del '79 che pubblico integralmente : ni.mo et Ecc.™o Sig.o'
Sig.or et Padron Col.'"o In fine, la Saprema bontà, di Sua Altezza
Reale là Sig.^^ Duchessa di lorch, là quale non inuidia punto la
Generosità del nostro Ser.n*o Padrone, ha ottenuta là dà noi tanto
desiderata licenza; doppo esser stati per tre mesi Infruttuosi
appresso questa Real Corte, è quello che più importa anco à noi
stessi, non hanendo potuto rapresentare che solo u.... sei Comedie
con Pochissimo Applauso, è niente d* Vtile; È be[nsi vero] Però che
si hebbe già in due uolte per ricorso fatto alla Nos[tra] Ser.n^^
Prottetrice è Padrona, cento cinquanta Pezze, è si die[de] tredici
Pezze per uno; beuanda, che semi non per smorzare ma per
accendere maggiormente là sete à questo Idropico corpo di
Compagnia ; Potati che furono à pena i Rami del Vechio debito,
ripuluUorno in breue in tanta copia che mossa di nono à Pietà là
Prodiga mano di Sua Altezza Reale ha ritrouato il modo di sradicare
questa infruttuosa Pianta. Indi in quantità sufficiente seminando
Argenteo Sale nel fertile terreno della nostra Pouertà, già sterille l'ha
reso; Siamo dunque richi, perchè la Compagnia [è| senza debiti;
Infermità, che ci haueua ridotti poco [più] che alli estremi; se con
Aurei siroppi non ueniua cu[ra]ta; Piaga cosi Vasta, che per
medicarla Vna sol uol[ta] è stato neccessario Adoprare ottocento
Pezze ; rissanati dunque, senza altra licenza del Medico, Vogliamo
mutar aria à Dio Piacendo, è si i disgusti eh' io prono dà questa
turba di Compagni sregolata, non mi fanno ricadere, spero di
ritornare con salute à riuedere il Panaro, terminato che haurò di più
mirare l'Abhorito Tamiggi; Attendo perciò un Ostro fauoreuole per
scostarmi quanto prima dà questi lidi ; Nel' quali' tempo là prego di
nono à non scordarsi di me' è di quanto nel' ultima mia le scrissi
poiché là mia Flemma si è resa in tutto è per tutto in habile à poter
più proseguire auanti; ò mutatione di Compagni, ò libertà; Londra li
Ì
17 febraro Ì679. Di V. E.. Huin ™0 Scr.«> DeuoL'no Gio. Antonio Lolli
detto il Dottore Comico, Di fuori : ai' Ill.mo et Ecc.nio Sig.^ et
Padron Col.mo U Sig.' Don Alfonso D'Este Franca per Mantoa
Modena. A questo viaggio di Londra si riferisce l'altra sua lettera da
Lione al comico Francesco Delli Angioli (V.). Con lettera del 3 marzo
1683, il Duca di Mantova scriveva al Duca di Modena, per chiedergli
insieme ad altri comici il Dottor Brentino, da aggregare alla propria
compagnia.
32 • LOLLI Ma il Duca di Modena continuò a tener
compagnia, e in essa il Lolli, di cui abbiamo la seguente lettera
curiosissima: Altezza Ser.">a Gio. Antonio Lolli Allias Dottor Brentino
Comico, Humil.n»o Sernitore di Vostra Altezza Serenissima Doppo di
hauere per lo spatio di anni otto sernito con ogni Decoro et
honorenolezza al' Altezza Vostra fu Già Vn'Anno fa fuori di tempo, è
senza alcun' Demerito, Dal' Sig.»"« Don Alfonso, licentiato dal*
Ser."»o Seruiggio, à conditione però, di non passare i monti fuori di
Itallia, né di impegnarsi con altri Prencipi; onde non hauendo in
dodici mesi potuto Impiegarsi nella Comica atteso le circostanze Sud.
te fu neccessitato ricorrere con lettere all' Sud.to Sig.^ Don Alfonso
per qualche Sollieuo più Volte Ma sempre senza frutto, onde ridotto
in estrema Neccessità, è Carico di Debiti | ricorre con Profonda
humilta à Piedi di Vostra Altezza Ser.»"» Supplicandola à Volere con
occhio Pietoso riflettere alla sua Causa non hauendo doppo un'Anno
Perduto ; modo di sostentarsi, che di tanta Gratia. Quam Deus &. Di
fuori: Memoriale All'Altezza Ser.n^a Dell' Signor Duca di Modena Per
Gio. Antonio Lolli Comico detto il' Dottore. {Rescritto della
Cancelleria) prouisto 21 maggio 1686, Infatti nel maggio '86 egli
figurava nella lista dei comici del Duca, al fianco dei coniugi Fiala, di
Antonio Riccoboni, di Carlo San Giorgi, ecc. ecc., ai quali per
sussistenza furono assegnate due doppie il mese. E lo troviamo del
'92 sempre al servizio del Duca, a cui scrive da Ferrara Luigi
Bentivoglio, pregandolo di concedere la permissione al Dottor
Brentino di trasferirsi a recitar colà nella compagnia da lui protetta.
Altro non mi fu possibile rinvenire, specialmente per quanto potesse
concernere un suo grado di parentela con Fichetto e col Dottor
Baloardo, dei quali era contemporaneo. Lolli Giovanni-Batista- Angelo
-Agostino. Bolognese, nato circa il 1628, fu reputatissimo attore in
Francia sotto la maschera del Dottore, col nome di Graziati Baloardo,
Il Tralage in una sua nota manoscritta parla della eccellenza de'
costumi di Lolli, il quale, un po' fors' anco per questo, e un po' pel
suo nome di Angelo, era noto più specialmente col nome di
The text on this page is estimated to be only 27.11%
accurate

l'Ance, o Lange, col quale anche talvolta si firmava. Fece


rappresentare nel '70 una commedia intitolata Z^ Gentilhomme
camfiagnard, ou les Débauches d'Ariequin. Sposò Patrizia Adami (V.),
servetta col nome di Diamant'ina. insieme alla quale fu naturalizzato
francese il 16 giugno del 1683, e si ritirò dal teatro, a cagione dell'
età e de' malanni, nel 1694, con una pensione di mille lire, sostituito
da Marc'Antonio Romagnesi, che avea recitato sin allora gli amorosi.
Giov. Angiolo Lolli morì a Parigi nel suo domicilio, me du Croissant. Ìl
4 novembre 1702, e fu sepolto l'indomani nella chiesa di Sant'
Eustacchio. Il Loret, nella Muse historique del 14 febbraio 1654, così
ci apprende una disputa sorta fra il Dottor Lolli e il Pantalon Turi:
Baloardo Cotnèdien, lequel eocor qu'Iialien, n'est qu'un auteur
mélancolique, l'autre jour en piace publique, vivement attaquer osa
le Pantalon Bisognosa, qui pour repousser l'incartade, mit soudain la
main à l'espade, et se chatoliillèrent loag-iems, devanc quantité
d'assistans; qui croyant leur combat tragique, n'ètre que fiction
comique, laissérent leurs grands coup tirer, sans nullement les
sèparer. Si le come, ou l'histoire n'erre Baloardo tombant par terre,
s'écria « Dieu ! quelle pitie! « les Francois ont peu d'amìtié !
34 LOLLI - LOLLIO — i « Ayant commencé de combattre, «
nous pensions qu'on nous tint à quatre; « sans cet espoir nous
n'eussions pas; « nul de nous n'étant sanguinaire; « on nous a
pourtant laissé faire, ce Donc pour m'étre un peu trop hàté, « je suis
navré par le coté. « Veramenìc queste personnes « ne sont ni
courtoises, ni bonnes. » Tour chagrin, lout pale & transi, Baloardo
parloit ainsi, en regardant saigner sa playe. Que Taventure, ou non,
soit vraye, en la saison de maintenant, tout est de caréme prenant.
LoUio Carlo. Nacque a Bergamo nel 1832, e, terminati a pena gli
studi ginnasiali, entrò aspirante nel Tribunale di prima istanza; ma,
perseguitato dal governo austriaco pei suoi sentimenti patriottici, fu
costretto ad esulare, e consacrarsi alle scene, esordendo
nell'autunno 1852 con la drammatica compagnia di Nicola Cola.
Venuto a mancare il primo attor giovane in Compagnia Domeniconi,
egli fu chiamato a sostituirlo, facendo subito bella prova con la parte
di Emanuele nel Segreto. Passò, dopo un triennio, nella Compagnia
di Luigi Santecchi, ov'era Enrichetta Abati, che divenne poi sua
moglie, indi, assunto il ruolo di primo attore assoluto, nella lombarda
diretta da Zamarini. Tentò il capocomicato in società con Federigo
Boldrini, ma con poca fortuna; e si scritturò, terminato Tanno, e per
un triennio, con Giuseppe Trivelli, col quale ebbe la fortuna di
recitare al fianco di Gustavo Modena, sostenendo le parti di David
nel Saul, di Nemours nel Luigi XI, di Loivendegen e del Duca d' Alba
nel Cittadino di Gand. Da quella del Trivelli passò nelle Compagnie di
Gaspare Pieri, di Pieri e Dondini, di Colomberti e Casilini, e di Lupi.
Entrò poi in società con Augusto Bertini e Leontina Papà, e diresse, a
Napoli, la Compagnia del Teatro Nuovo, impresario
il Luzi. Fu inoltre nella Compagnia n." 2 di Fanny Sadowski,
diretta da Luigi Monti, da cui si sciolse il '76 per la morte della
moglie, diventando di bel nuovo capocomico, e inaugurando Ìl
giugno di quell'anno il Politeama Alfieri di Genova. Fu con la Pezzana
in Ispagna e Portogallo, e, tornato in Italia, con Bollini; passando poi
di società in società fino all'anno, in cui fu nominato Professore
secondario alla R. Scuola di Recitazione di Firenze. Ebbe dall'Abati
una figliuola, Antonietta, già seconda donna, poi prima, moglie
dell'artista Giuseppe Strini, e sposò in seconde nozze l'attrice
Annetta Cavallotti, da cui ebbe due figliuoli. Dire della squisitezza
dell'animo e della integrità di Carlo Lollio non potrei. Mite, affettuoso,
debole financo, si faceva leone contro la umana ingiustizia. Di fronte
al suo dovere dì uomo onesto non conosceva ostacoli. E questa sua
rettitudine senza pari gli costò la vita. Disfatto dalla malattia dì
cuore, impotente quasi a muoversi dal letto di morte, con uno sforzo
supremo un giorno levò il capo, e si diede a sclamare con voce rotta
dal pianto; « perdono! perdono!... perdono tutti! perdono tutto!...» E
dopo qualche giorno, il 2 2 nov. 1 893, morì ; e io nulla ho più da
aggiungere, ubbidiente e devoto all'amico, al padre, al protettore e
difensore mio; ma voglio qui, in questo libro, ov'è trasfusa tanta
parte di me, chiudere i cenni della vita di Carlo Lollio con una
Y>3so\a.: gratitudine /
36 LOMBARDI Lombardi Bernardino. Recitava le parti di
Graziano nella Compagnia dei Comici Confidenti, che tanto grido
levaron tra noi e in Francia nella seconda metà del sec. xvi. Non è
ben chiarito in quale epoca si recassero a Parigi, ma non prima,
pare, del '75; né in quale si fondessero coi Gelosi, formando la
Compagnia dei Comici Uniti, e da quelli poi si risciogliessero. Al nome
di Alberghini-Angelica, è pubblicato il madrigale di Cristoforo Corbelli
che generò la notizia data dal Quadrio della loro unione circa r '80.
Ma una supplica pubblicata dal Belgrano abbiam neir '83 di
Bernardino Lombardi a nome degli Uniti Confidenti per recitare a
Genova nei mesi di aprile, maggio e giugno, ed altra ne abbiamo neir
'86 al Senato Genovese, de' soli Confidenti. Fu il Lombardi anche
autore di una commedia in prosa, intitolata V Alchimista, e dedicata
a Giulio Pallavicino (Ferrara, Baldini, 1583, poi Venezia, Sessa, 1586,
e Spineda, 1602), in cui, scrive Adolfo Bartoli nella sua introduzione
agli Scenar j, < noi troviamo quello che è così raro nella commedia
italiana del secolo xvi, qualche carattere studiato e disegnato. La
satira dell'Alchimista è ben fatta, e Momo, Lucrezia, il servo Volpino
hanno qualche originalità, si staccano dal solito e monotono
convenzionalismo di quasi tutti i personaggi drammatici del cinque e
seicento. Le stesse Nafissa vecchia ed Angelica cortigiana si può
asserire che non sono come tutte quelle altre infinite cortigiane e
vecchie della scena italiana. > Alla fine di essa è un suo sonetto, non
brutto, al Pallavicino, che il Bartoli riferisce nel suo cenno : ma io
preferisco metter qui una scena del Graziano (la 3* dell'atto II), la
quale ci darà meglio un'idea dello scrittore e dell'artista: SCENA III
POCOINTESTA & GRATIANO Poe. Che cosa vorrà il suo seruitor dal
mio patrone cosi allo scuro, che non ne habbiamo anchora tredici del
Mese? & sono decinoue miglia sonate in torre di Nona, & non ho
finito ancho il primo sonno, & la patrona della sua sema mi manda,
per eh' io parli col mio padrone: ma eccolo a fede mia, e nò burlo
già, che volete voi da me? Gra. Desedet zucca senza sai, tu duorme
an ualenthom, Oh quand qstu no dorm l' è pur vizilant as pò ben dir
che essendo con mi, ch'ai sia insiem du huomn dlla caplina
LOMBARDI 37 lu in te la tutia, e mi in quel eh se sa. Dim
Pocintesta, che cosa voi similitndinar quel che t'ha in quel Alcest?
Poe. Mad. s* io vo dal patrone, volete eh* io mi leui di questo letto,
o pure ho d'andami cosi ignudo: horsu aprìtimi la porta, e fatemi
lume, che gli è vn giorno di notte, che par di mezzo Agosto, o bel
solaio alla sala del mio patrone; ho patrona dite al messere, che non
voglio leuarmi. Gra. a son masculin, e no famulin, & ti no nie in casa,
ne in tal lett es t'auuri i occhi t vedrrà se ti no srà orb, dim vn poc,
mat purta qle rob, cha t' ho scritt in qella plizza. Poe. Eccoci il giorno,
ma chi mi ha portato qui senza mia licenza, & m' ha riuestito, che
paio vn hnomn di legno? patrone son qui; perchè M. & il mio
messere con Pocointesta madorono la casa del semitore in villa p
portare in vn cesto le coma del bufolo caprino, che voi sete, suo
amico. Gra. Tn sa dir al to concet, zuè la tua vpilation, tu vuo dir
Mad. la qual parland cun mi vuol vnfrir l'infumad parol, che te ne
par, nonella qsi? Poe. Signor si, eccomi vino da donerò; e s*io muoro
mai più, che possiate essere eastrato ; mi pareua hora dormendo,
che haueuate perduto il ceruello, & che il mio per cercarlo era
restato pegno per la vettura del cauallo alla Storta. Gra. Non tant
derimonie, at domand le robeno al cernei. Poe. O vi dirò, il messo,
che mi fu portato dalla lettera, dicea cosi. Per vn presente ti lauerai il
viso, come voglio, che tu pigli co tre pesci in porto, e vn passo in
mezo il Tenere co '1 dissegno d' vna tetta vecchia, & che tu metta
vna buona cura alle cose del fiamingo, accio resti sano, & teghi V
acqua, & eh' io venissi col subito per vna cossa eh' importa, si che
intendete il presente, la lettera no me la diede; il viso me lo lauai; i
tre pesci eccoUi, il passo in mezo il Tenere lo farò, se voi pagate la
spesa del ritorno; il disegno della tetta vecchia non se ne troua; il
Fiamingo, perchè non è stitico, non volse la cura; ne li diedi l'acqua,
perchè li piaceua più il Vino: il subbio eccolo, che ve ne pare ? non
son' io lesto ? & se non mi credete ecco la lettera. Gra. Ti n' sa liezer,
lassa far à mi, da qui che te m' ha srui in ti garit ; la dis qsi ascolta
qnest è al suzett, al tintor della littera, pr la patent t' haurà auis,
com'a vuoi, eh t' pii al cumtrapes, e vn cumpas mezan, eum al dsegn
d' ceuetta vecchia, & met bona cura alle eos del fìameng azzò che le
tiengan ben l' aqua ferma, * * subi pr vna cosa de porca: mo fat qui,
va in tal mia studi, e tua al mia cumtrafat dpint int l'voli dal naturai,
e puortal alla sgnora Angzielica da mia parte, e dii cha vuoi parlar
cun lià sta sira sacchettamente, chin dit ? t' bastard l' amit d' far l'
imbastarda con la va. Poe. £ di che sorte; dirò cosi. M. ritrat mi
manda da voi la cortigiana, acciò le mandiate vn sacchetto di mente
per il bastardo, da far l'amito al basto del mio patrone, & contrafarà
nello studio del Pittore l'olio nell' rerinale, non va cosi? Gra. Si si o
bon tia al più bon rutori al più bel vrlador pr dir la to intintation, che
sia ma vsci dalla scola d' Zezaron, potta d' Zuda, s' Roma perdes
qstù, a mi la free pò castra da vera, va mit zo qste rob, e tua quel
cha t' ho dit, e vsa bona salcizza da Vdine di gratia intomo à Fiora,
che vaga a eà d' la surella d' la patrona, sat Pocintesta garbat? e mi
andarò dal mia eumpar per vn mia disegn. Lombardi Francesco.
Nativo di Alessandria della Paglia, commesso un omicidio in patria,
esulò per sottrarsi ai rigori della giustizia, e si fece frate dell'ordine di
S. Francesco. Stanco poi della vita monastica, fuggì dal convento in
paesi
38 LOMBARDI ov' era sconosciuto, sinché, unitosi alla
Compagnia di Nicola Petrioli, si diede al teatro recitando le parti di
secondo innamorato (era Testate del 1740, al Teatro Ducale di
Milano). Nella chiesa parrocchiale detta S. Maria della Mascarella in
Bologna, prese moglie, con cui visse molti anni senza figliuoli, e che
gli morì del 1 768 in Venezia. Pcissato nella Compagnia di Vincenzo
Bazzigotti, e recatosi a Siena, tentò in vano di psissare a seconde
nozze con una giovane del paese, per nome Caterina, divenuta poi la
moglie di Antonio Fiorilli. Sempre in Compagnia del Bazzigotti fu il
carnovale del '70 in Ferrara, dove, scoperto alla fine, risolse di
palesare il suo stato al Marchese Camillo Bevilacqua, coli' aiuto del
quale potè ottenere la protezione del Cardinal Crescenzi, Legato di
Ferrara, che invioUo a Roma appiedi di papa Clemente XIV, dal quale
ottenne la più ampia assoluzione di ogni sua colpa. Tornò air ordine
de' cappuccini, e da una sua lettera a un Facchini di Ferrara, in data
del 2 febbraio 1771, firmata Fra Gian Fedele d'Alessandria, stridente
cappuccino indegno, e pubblicata per intero da Fr. Bartoli, sappiamo
com' egli, appena entrato, avesse avuto la direzione spirituale, che
durò sei mesi, dal Padre Maestro Bonaventura di Ferrara; poscia un
Lettore, il Padre Giuseppe Maria d'Alessandria, per psissar la
filosofia. All'ottobre avrebbe mutato convento per lo studio della
teologia, e avrebbe officiato a Pentecoste. Si diede poi alle Missioni
apostoliche, e lo vediam percorrere tutta la Marca Anconitana, e fece
con grande successo il quaresimale del '77 a Bologna, in quella
stessa chiesa della Mascarella, ove, rinnegata la fede, avea preso
moglie. Suo vivo desiderio sarebbe stato quello d'andar tra* barbari,
missionario, beato di affrontare e sostenere il martirio per la fede di
Cristo, ma la morte lo colse del '78, mentre stava predicando in
Romagna. li Stefano da Nizza di Provenza. Il Bartoli lo dice comico di
qualche merito. Recitò le parti àHnnamorato in Com 
LOMBARDI 39 pagaia di Nicodemo Manni, con la moglie
Anna, egregia servetta, con la quale passò poi a Napoli e a Palermo
(1782). Lombardi Rodrigo. Bolognese, comico eccellente per le parti
di Dottore, nelle quali e per la intelligenza e per la vivacità non ebbe
chi gli stesse a fronte. Fu uno de' principali ornamenti della
Compagnia di Antonio Sacco, di cui sposò la sorella Adriana, moglie
poi in seconde nozze dell'artista Atanasio Zannoni. Ebbe da tal
matrimonio molti figliuoli, e ne vediam due sul teatro: Benedetto,
prima ballerino nella Compagnia del Sacco, rimasto in tal carica sul
teatro a Lisbona per undici anni al servizio di quella Corte, poi,
tornato in Italia e già maturo, Arlecchino di molto pregio, morto a
Torino nel carnovale del 1 795 ; e Rosa, graziosa e pregevole
donnina, che sposò Francesco Arena, il figliastro del Pantalone
d'Arbes, e morì giovanissima. Quando dalla Compagnia Grimani uscì
il Dottore Monti, Rodrigo Lombardi andò a sostituirlo, e Goldoni
lasciò scritto di lui (Pasquali, XIV, 9) eh' era bravo, eccellente: e
valente lo disse pure il Gozzi nell'appendice al suo Ragtonamento
ingenuo (IV, 45). Fu autor di Scenarj di commedie all' improvviso, eh'
egli recitava mirabilmente, intitolate Il Dottore giudice e padre, e Chi
trova un amico trova u?t tesoro, o sia // Dottore avvocato dei poveri.
Nel 1 749, sceso all'osteria della Croce Bianca in Parma, ove dovea
far la stagione d'estate coi Parenti, fu colpito da sì repente e terribile
male, che dovette, in capo a pochi dì, soccombere nella pienezza
della virilità. Lombardi Giovanni. Figlio di Benedetto, di cui s' è fatto
cenno all'articolo precedente, fu attore pregiatissimo in Roma per le
parti di donna. Passò poi in varie compagnie nel ruolo di primo
amoroso, e tale fu molti anni in quella di Giacomo Moggio. Scrisse
molte commedie rappresentate e non istampate, e, lasciata l'arte, si
ritirò prima a Mirandola, poi a S. Giovanni in Persiceto, dove morì nel
1836.
40 LOMBARDI Lombardi Federigo. Fratello del precedente,
fu come lui artista egregio per le parti di primo amoroso, che
sostenne nelle migliori compagnie del suo tempo. Sposò in Siena
una certa Giuseppa Zacchea di Milano. Venuto a maturità, vestì la
maschera del Brighella, sotto la quale si mostrò pur valentissimo, e
morì in Bologna nel 1850. Lombardi Rosa. Sorella dei precedenti,
nacque a Venezia nel 1 741, e cominciò da bimba a mostrar grandi
attitudini alla scena. Fu coi parenti nella Compagnia Sacco, e recatasi
poi con essa a Lisbona assieme ai fratelli e ad altri fanciulli, recitò
con gran maestria le parti àX prima attrice, protetta e remunerata da
quei Sovrani sino al dì del famoso terremoto del 1755, in cui fu
costretta a tornarsene con la Compagnia in Italia. Progredendo in
età, in perizia, in bellezza, potè assumere il ruolo di prima attrice
assoluta, in cui fu acclamata a Venezia e altrove come una delle più
chiareartiste del suo tempo. Sposò a ventidue anni Giuseppe Arena,
il celebre inventor delle macchine, trasformazioni, voli, ecc., per le
favole teatrali scritte da Carlo Gozzi pel capo-comico Sacco, ma, non
compiuti i ventiquattr'anni, le si palesò tal grado di anemia che in
pochissimo tempo la estinse in Venezia nel 1765, seguita nel
sepolcro a breve distanza dallo sposo accoratissimo. Lombardi
Francesco. Primo figlio di Federigo, nacque a Bergamo il 1 792, e,
con l'esempio del padre, si mostrò fin da giovanetto egregio amoroso
in Compagnia di Antonio Goldoni, poi di Giacomo Dorati ; riuscendo
quindi, sotto gli ammaestramenti di Giovanni Libanti, artista de' più
pregiati. Venuto a morte in Compagnia Fabbrichesi il celebre
Giovanni Bettini, andò il Lombardi a sostituirlo; e sì bene uscì dal
cimento, che partito il Belli-Blanes, egli ne sostenne le migliori parti
di amoroso, passando di trionfo in trionfo. Indescrivibile è il
fanatismo da lui destato a Napoli, solo uguagliato dal fratello
Alessandro. Fu quindi nella Compagnia di Luigi Vestri, stipendiato dal
vecchio
The text on this page is estimated to be only 24.98%
accurate

LOMBARDI Duca Torlonia per tre stagioni annuali in Roma,


e quivi anche sì rinnovarono i trionfi di Napoli. Passò da. questa
primo ai/ore con Giacomo Modena, poi, intollerante di giogo, formò
da sé compagnia della quale fu prima attrice l'Amalia Vidari. La
quaresima del '25 diede improvvisamente addìo alle scene per
ritirarsi a Bologna, ove aveva segretamente sposata la Principessa
Maria Hercolani. Il Colombertì dice di lui: che sortì dalla natura e
inquieto, atrabiliire, pontìglioso e prepolenle. Villano e sprezzante di
tutto e di tatti, non aveva amici perche voleva suppedìtar tatti con il
suo prepotente contegno, e con il suo basso e triviale frasario.
Osteiiante, bene spesso era preso dal vino, ed in allora netmno
sapeva il modo di contenersi con Ini. Secondandolo, se ne
olTendeva, opponendosegli, bisognava litigare, e anche venire alle
mani. Dotata di una forza ercolea, sn di essa afiidavasi per
insoleatire a dritto o a torto - / Comi aaliat . VoL II
42 LOMBARDI A questo carattere violento, irruento, dovè il
Lombardi la più tragica delle morti, che il Colomberti ancora ci
racconta ne' suoi particolari : Senti vasi egli una mattina indisposto
di s&lnte; aveva ordinato un brodo, e tardando a riceverlo, si recò
egli stesso in cucina dal cuoco, uomo già vecchio, e che da molti
anni serviva nel palazzo della Principessa. Là giunto, corse fra loro
un dialogo con minaccie da parte del Lombardi, e di scuse da quella
del cuoco ; ma queste non servirono che a iritar maggiormente il
padrone, il quale fini col percuotere il vecchio. Questi che stava
sventrando un pollo, aveva in mano un lungo coltello e affilato. Alla
provocazione, l' insultato e percosso rispose avvertendolo di fermarsi
: ma seguitando quegli brutalmente a percuoterlo, il cuoco, perduto
il lume della ragione, gli piantò il coltello nel basso ventre, e
Lombardi cadde immerso nel suo sangue. A quella vista, il
disgraziato vecchio fuggi dal palazzo, col coltello grondante sangue
in mano, urlando lungo la via, e correndo a costituirsi in prigione,
dove mori di dolore dopo pochi mesi. Mentre il cuoco correva alla
polizia a palesare il fatto, Federigo, padre di Francesco, che non
abitava con lui, lo andò a cercar nel suo appartamento, e avendo
saputo dal cameriere ov' era, andò alla cucina ; ed entrato in quella,
gli si presentò l'orribile spettacolo del figlio steso in terra, ed
immerso in un lago di sangue. Come il povero Federigo rimanesse,
immagini il lettore, n figlio, dopo pochi secondi, gli spirò fra le
braccia, dopo averlo riconosciuto, ma senza pronunziare una parola.
Era il giugno del 1845. Molti testimoniaron della grandezza del suo
valore. Francesco Righetti nel suo Teatro italiano (II, 104), parlando
de' comici figli di comici, dice : // solo Francesco Lombardi s'alza
gigante in mezzo a tanti suoi confratelli, che, 0 giacciono
nell'oscurità, 0 appena toccano la mediocrità. Nella Galleria de' più
rinomati attori drammatici italiani, da cui ho tolto il presente ritratto,
è uno scritto di Tommaso Locatelli, il quale dice di lui: Il Lombardi è
dotato dalla natura di alta e bella persona, d'una corretta e chiara
pronunzia, e di una voce forte e soave, atta in singoiar modo a
piegarsi a tutte le infinite varietà di quegli affetti, eh' ei vuole
esprimere, e che sa cosi mirabilmente trasfondere negli animi de'
suoi uditori. Benché le parti tutte gli stieno bene del pari, pure la
tragedia è quasi il suo campo d' onore, dov' egli in quelle, che
sostiene, si addentra cosi, che più in lui non vedete l'attore, ma vi
trovate dinanzi l'eroe ch'ei rappresenta. Milano n'ebbe già una prova
solenne, che poteva riuscire per lui troppo fatale, allorquando del
1821 su quelle scene rappresentando V Emone nx^^ Antigone
dell'Alfieri, nell'atto ch'ei dovea simulare di uccidersi, veramente si
feri del pugnale nel fianco. Tal fatto ci è descritto nel seguente
sonetto, che tien dietro allo scritto del Locatelli:
LOMBARDI 43 Sei tu, Lombardi, o il furibondo Emone,
d'Antigone svenata al crudo aspetto, che col barbaro padre in ria
tenzone d'ira trabocca e disperato aflfetto? Chi pingendo natura, al
paragone starà di te, cui Torrido subbietto sul brando micidial tragge
boccone, tal che piaga non finta apri nel petto? Surse il popolo allora
e un grido mise visto il garzon che si scolora e langue, e pietoso
terror Talme conquise. Il cordoglio comun piagnealo esangue; sola
dell' astigian l'ombra sorrise allo stillar d' inaspettato sangue. a. p.
Lombardi Alessandro. Fratello del precedente, nacque a Mantova nel
1796, né fu men celebre di Francesco, poiché se a lui non si accostò
nella tragedia, lo uguagliò nel dramma, e lo superò nella commedia.
Di bella figura, se bene alquanto esile, di voce armoniosissima,
d'ingegno pronto, di coltura non comune venutasi acquistando da sé
con l'assidue letture, di maniere dolcissime, fu amato da quanti lo
conobbero. Si tolse dalla famiglia il 1 8 1 5 per andare amoroso in
Compagnia di Angelo Venier, col quale dopo un anno, assunse per
due anni ancora il ruolo óì primo amoroso assoluto. Passò poi (\Md\
primo attor giovine in Compagnia di Gaetano Goldoni-Riva, in cui
stette fino al '21, per entrar poi a Napoli in quella di Salvador
Fabbrichesi, superando la più difficile prova, dacché andava ad
affrontar quello stesso pubblico, che sino a poche sere innanzi,
aveva avuto incredibili entusisismi pel fratello Francesco. Ma una sì
preziosa esistenza doveva, essere anzi tempo troncata, non così
tragicamente come quella del fratello, ma non men stranamente.
Alessandro Lombardi, in una cena di amici a Trieste nella primavera
del 1820, forse un po' alterato dal vino, fé' scommessa di stritolar co'
denti un bicchiere di cristallo, e tutto inghiottirlo. Già egli ne avea
fatta la prova
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