Does a restrictive foreign trade regime reduce the effectiveness of agricultural productivity growth in promoting overall income growth and equity? Based on counterfactual simulations using a multi-sector, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Philippine economy, this paper...

We introduce a maximum entropy approach to parameter estimation for computable general equilibrium (CGE) models. The approach applies information theory to estimating a system of nonlinear simultaneous equations. It has a number of advantages. First, it imposes all general equilibrium...

There is a continuing need to use recent and consistent multisectoral economic data to support policy analysis and the development of economywide models. Updating and estimating input-output tables and Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) for a recent year is a difficult and a challenging problem....

This paper presents a framework for analyzing the contributions of government policies and exogenous (mostly, external) factors to the observed changes in the relative price of a tradable agricultural product. A decomposition analysis is undertaken on the changes in price competitivness of four...

This paper has been prepared as part of the Zambia country study of the Macroeconomic and Regional Integration in Southern Africa (MERRISA) project and serves as a background paper for modeling exercises. The paper focuses on analyzing institutional constraints on the development of the...

Changes in real wages are often used to measure welfare changes. There is a problem, however, in interpreting measures of changes in factor returns when analyzing the impact of changes in taxes — such as tariffs and indirect taxes — that operate as wedges in product and factor markets versus...

Using a mathematical-programming agricultural-sector model of Egypt, this paper analyzes mechanisms for allocating scarce water and for charging the farmers the Operation and Management (O&M) costs of irrigation and drainage, currently covered by the government. The effects of cost recovery are...

The 1991 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Zimbabwe that we document in this paper is intended to provide benchmark data for economy-wide analysis under the MERRISA Project. Its construction is based on a three-step process: (1) building a macro SAM that presents the aggregative features of the...

This paper analyzes the income and equity effects of the dramatic growth in rice yield in the Philippines during the "green revolution" period 1965-1980 using a modified Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) framework. Proportionately larger income benefits are found to accrue to the large-farm than...