Ivory Price Rises And Inflation (1983)

The paper relates ivory price to an index of inflation in order to explore the basis of a link between the rate of the killing of elephants and the rise in price of ivory greater than that of inflation. The index of inflation used came from the OECD for industrialized countries increased by 3.5 time between 1960 and 1980. Ivory prices for the similar period are taken from Parker (1979) and Parker and Bradley Martin (1983) using 1960 prices as the base year. Between 1960 and 1968 ivory prices kept broadly in line with the rate of inflation. Between 1969 and 1978 ivory prices exceeded inflation by a factor of 5.9 and between 1978 to 1982 by a factor of 3.5. The higher rate of inflation in individual elephant producing countries such as Kenya, Zaire and Uganda would it is argued reinforce the demand for ivory as a valuable commodity.