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The Palestinian economy and its trade pattern: Stylised facts and alternative modelling strategies

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  • Botta, Alberto

Abstract

The World Bank (WB) Computational General Equilibrium model (CGE) by Claus Astrup and Sebastian Dessus (2001) is a cornerstone study on Palestine. It adopts a strictly neoclassical perspective, in which price-driven adjustments and the Armington/Constant-Elasticity-of-Transformation (CET) apparatus describe the functioning of the Palestinian economy and its foreign trade relations. This paper argues that certain empirical and factual inconsistencies prevent such a “pure” neoclassical approach from representing the Palestinian reality. We firstly argue that quantity-driven adjustments better describe economic adjustments within the Palestinian economy than price-driven adjustments do. Secondly, we stress the prevailing inter-industry nature of Palestinian foreign trade and the relevance of real income variables to explain expenditure allocation between domestic and imported goods. These aspects are hardly caught by the Armington/CET apparatus and require an alternative formalizing strategy. The final section of the paper describes a heterodox/structuralist perspective on Palestine.

Suggested Citation

  • Botta, Alberto, 2010. "The Palestinian economy and its trade pattern: Stylised facts and alternative modelling strategies," MPRA Paper 29719, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:29719
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Marco Missaglia & Paul de Boer, 2004. "Food-For-Work versus Cash-For-Work: Emergency Assistance in Palestine," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 367-390.
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    11. Alberto Botta & Gianni Vaggi, 2011. "Palestine: a theoretical model of an Investment-Constrained Economy," Economics and Quantitative Methods qf1105, Department of Economics, University of Insubria.
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    Cited by:

    1. Johanes Agbahey & Khalid Siddig & Harald Grethe & Jonas Luckmann, 2022. "Trade policy in a sovereign Palestinian State: What are the options in a final settlement?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(10), pages 3269-3293, October.
    2. Agbahey Johanes & Siddig Khalid & Grethe Harald & McDonald Scott, 2020. "Labor exports from Palestine to Israel: a boon or bane for the West Bank economy?," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-25, March.
    3. Missaglia, Marco & Valensisi, Giovanni, 2014. "Trade policy in Palestine: A reassessment," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 899-923.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Palestine; Foreign trade; Structuralist CGE models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C68 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computable General Equilibrium Models
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • B50 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - General

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