Over the past decade, the increasing power and reliability of microcomputers and the development of sophisticated software designed specificallyfor use with them has led to significant changes in the way quantitative food policy analysis is conducted. These changes cover most aspects of...

The Asian financial crisis led to a major devaluation of the Indonesian exchange rate,macro instability, and the need for a “structural adjustment” program. The real devaluation affectsprices throughout the economy and has a major impact on growth, production, deforestation, andincome...

Weather fluctuations, such as those caused by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO),add to the riskiness associated with agricultural production. Improved predictive capacitymay help ameliorate negative impacts of climate and weather shocks on agriculture, but itis possible that the benefits...

New advances in biotechnology have enhanced production of maize, soybeans, and cotton. Consumer reactions to the new technology have been mixed. Both the supply shock, from an increase in productivity or a reduction in input use, and the demand shock, which is determined by the consumer response...

As a result of Zambia's dependence on copper mining, both the falling world copper price and the possible withdrawal of investment from the mining sector might seriously threaten economic growth and stability. Accordingly, the impact of a 20 percent reduction in world copper prices and a...

In this paper, we present a comparative analysis of the extent to which indirect taxes, tariffs, and exchange rates affected relative price incentives for agricultural production in a representative sample of 15 developing countries in the 1990s. Empirical studies from the 1980s, using partial...

This paper analyzes price, production and trade consequences of changingconsumer preferences regarding the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) infood production. The analytical framework used is an empirical global generalequilibrium model, in which the entire food processing chain –...

This paper analyzes two potential trade liberalization scenarios – a Free Trade Area of theAmericas (FTAA) and possible links between MERCOSUR and the European Union(EU) – in a world computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The model alsoincorporates some macro elements such as a cash-...

This study quantitatively analyzes the general equilibrium effects of declines in world demand for tobacco products. The study finds that tobacco exports and production in the three developing countries, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Turkey, would be badly hit if world tobacco prices fall due to the...

This paper considers supply decisions by firms in a dynamic setting with adjustment costsand compares the behavior of an optimal control model to that of a rule-based system whichrelaxes the assumption that agents are explicit optimizers. In our approach, the economicagent uses believably simple...