Between famine and freedom
Food prices during the Indonesian War of Independence, 1945–9
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8853773 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ingrid J J De Zwarte (0000-0003-3675-5635, Wageningen University & Research, corresponding author), Helmi Moret (Wageningen University & Research), Pim De Zwart (0000-0003-0155-1165, Wageningen University & Research) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 79 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1082-1107 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Economic History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/ehr.70084 |
| OpenAlex | W7126115241 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 25 |
This paper investigates how the Indonesian War of Independence (1945‒9) influenced staple food prices, and how fluctuations in those prices, in turn, shaped the trajectory and dynamics of the conflict. We compiled a dataset comprising more than 8600 prices for staple foods covering the entire Indonesian archipelago from 1939‒49, allowing us to estimate the effects of wartime conditions and the main Dutch military campaigns on food prices. We find that wartime price peaks were much more severe and prolonged than studies previously assumed, both in and outside Java. We show that the first large military operation, Operation Product, was partly motivated by high rice prices and demonstrate that these prices were significantly reduced across Java and Sumatra after the end of the military campaign. We then use a second dataset on wartime wages to estimate nutritional standards. These combined data suggest a very low nutritional status of urban unskilled wage labourers – often below the family subsistence level – in 1946 and the first half of 1947. Our results point to broader entitlement failures driven by weak market connectivity amidst military and economic warfare
Entitlement (fair division · Famine · Food prices · Independence (probability theory · Indonesian · Liberalization · Point (geometry · Subsistence agriculture · Wage · Asian Studies and History · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies
Market Responses to Climate Stress
The Entitlement Approach
The Indonesian Economy in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Eating People Is Wrong, and Other Essays on Famine, Its Past, and Its Future
World War II and Southeast Asia
Of Rice and Revolution
The Condition of the Working Class in England, 1209–2004
Unity or diversity? On the integration and efficiency of rice markets in Indonesia, c. 1920–2006
Political Dimensions of the Currency Question 1945-1947
Sen's Entitlement Approach
The Great Second World War Vietnam and Java Famines
Starvation amidst Plenty
Food for Growth
Urban growth and change in 1940s Southeast Asia
Causes and consequences of the Great Vietnam Famine, 1944-5
Income inequality and famine mortality
The monetary policy in the Netherlands East Indies under the Japanese administration
| Highly cited | No |
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