Economics of Street Food Venders in Nigeria and Afghanistan

Of every 10 workers in the world six work in the informal economy, while four out of every five organizations operate in the informal economy. An important sector in the informal economy is street food vending. Street food vendors not only earn their own living but provide a service to the market by making affordable food available quickly to the participants of the street market. While their role in the developing economies cannot be overlooked, not a lot has been known about them. This thesis explores street food vending in Afghanistan and Nigeria. Nigeria is used as an example for the rest of West Africa. In this thesis we will find out what crops are predominantly used by street food vendors, what are the impacts of price volatility on the profitability of street food vendors, are the vendors profitable, and how they make decisions under risk. We will be using tornado graphs, as well histograms, and cumulative density function to determine profitability and risk for street food vendors. We will also be using decision making trees to visualize how decisions are made by street food vendors.