IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/zewdip/0356.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Computable general equilibrium analysis: Opening a black box

Author

Listed:
  • Böhringer, Christoph
  • Rutherford, Thomas Fox
  • Wiegard, Wolfgang

Abstract

Computable general equilibrium models play an important role in applied economic research. These models accommodate the micro-consistent systematic analysis of complex economic problems where analytical solutions are either not available or do not provide adequate information. However, the computational approach to economic policy analysis also has severe shortcomings of its own. In general, scientific publications include a complete listing of neither the algebraic model underlying the numerical simulation nor the data used to calibrate model parameters. Even if the model algebra and the data were fully laid out, replication of results would still require specialized programming skills. As a consequence, CGE analyses are often perceived as a black box to non-expert readers. This article aims at lowering the barriers to numerical CGE analysis along two lines. First, we provide a compact introduction to recent methods of CGE model implementation that may substantially ease entry for potential modelers. Second, and equally important, we illustrate the non-technical access to CGE analysis by means of a user-friendly interface that allows non-modelers to test and develop their economic intuition on general equilibrium interactions without programming skills.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhringer, Christoph & Rutherford, Thomas Fox & Wiegard, Wolfgang, 2003. "Computable general equilibrium analysis: Opening a black box," ZEW Discussion Papers 03-56, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:0356
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/130210/1/85663686X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markusen, James R. & Melvin, James R. & Maskus, Keith E. & Kaempfer, William, 1995. "International trade: theory and evidence," MPRA Paper 21989, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Arnold C. Harberger, 1962. "The Incidence of the Corporation Income Tax," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70, pages 215-215.
    3. Whalley, John & Yeung, Bernard, 1984. "External sector closing rules in applied general equilibrium models," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 123-138, February.
    4. Shoven,John B. & Whalley,John, 1992. "Applying General Equilibrium," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521266550, December.
    5. Shoven, John B & Whalley, John, 1984. "Applied General-Equilibrium Models of Taxation and International Trade: An Introduction and Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 22(3), pages 1007-1051, September.
    6. Pereira, Alfredo M. & Shoven, John B., 1988. "Survey of dynamic computational general equilibrium models for tax policy evaluation," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 401-436.
    7. Rutherford, Thomas F., 1995. "Extension of GAMS for complementarity problems arising in applied economic analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1299-1324, November.
    8. Bhattacharyya, Subhes C., 1996. "Applied general equilibrium models for energy studies: a survey," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 145-164, July.
    9. Patrick J. Kehoe & Timothy J. Kehoe, 1994. "A primer on static applied general equilibrium models," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, issue Spr, pages 2-16.
    10. Robinson, Sherman & Yunez-Naude, Antonio & Hinojosa-Ojeda, Raul & Lewis, Jeffrey D. & Devarajan, Shantayanan, 1999. "From stylized to applied models:: Building multisector CGE models for policy analysis," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 5-38.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    equilibrium models; numerical CGE analysis;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:zewdip:0356. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/zemande.html .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.