The US economy from 1992 to 1998: historical and decomposition simulations with the USAGE model

USAGE is a 500 industry dynamic computable general equilibrium model of the US economy being developed at Monash University in collaboration with the US International Trade Commission. In common with the MONASH model of Australia, USAGE is designed for four modes of analysis: Historical, where we estimate changes in technology and consumer preferences; Decomposition, where we explain periods of economic history in terms of driving factors such as changes in technology and consumer preferences; Forecast, where we derive basecase forecasts for industries, occupations and regions that are consistent with trends from historical simulations and with available expert opinions; and Policy, where we derive deviations from basecase forecast paths caused by assumed policies. This paper reports our first set of historical and decomposition results. The historical results quantify several aspects of technical change in US industries for the period 1992 to 1998 including: intermediate-input-saving technical change; primary-factor-saving technical change; labor-capital bias in technical change; and import- domestic bias in technical change. The historical results also quantify shifts in consumer preferences between commodities. The decomposition results are applied in illustrative analyses of growth in US international trade between 1992 and 1998 and of growth in the US steel industry for this period.

Immigration reform scenarios for U.S. agriculture

The general equilibrium method adopted here reveals several effects of agriculture-focused immigration policies that would not have emerged in partial equilibrium analysis applied to agriculture. Our general equilibrium model includes specifications of: inter-sectoral labor flows; the role of vacancies in determining occupational choices; and macroeconomic relationships. This enables us to show that agricultural guest-worker and legalization programs are likely to: have similar effects on the agricultural sector; cause a gradual welfare-enhancing transformation of the occupational mix of incumbent employment away from agriculture; have small (possibly negative) effects on farm income; and have positive effects on aggregate capital, employment and GDP

Cobb-Douglas Utility - Eventually!

Consider the following two opinions, both of which can be found in the literature of consumer demand systems: (a) As the real income of a consumer becomes indefinitely large, re-mixing the consumption bundle becomes irrelevant: having chosen the ultimately satisfying budget shares at any given set of relative prices, the superlatively wealthy continue to allocate additional income in the same proportions. With very large and increasing per capita income, ultimately the utility function becomes indistinguishable from Cobb-Douglas. (b) Consumer demand systems in which the income elasticities monotonically approach one (from above, in the case of luxuries; from below, in the case of necessities) are unsatisfactory both theoretically and empirically. For instance, a necessity with a low (consumer demand system; applied general equilibrium; separability; implicitly directly additive preferences; effectively global regularity; Cobb-Douglas, calibration; AIDADS.

RED vs. REDD: Biofuel Policy vs. Forest Conservation. Factor Markets Working Document No. 41, May 2013

This paper assesses the complex interplay between global Renewable Energy Directives (RED) and the United Nations programme to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD). We examine the interaction of the two policies using a scenario approach with a recursive-dynamic global Computable General Equilibrium model. The consequences of a global biofuel directive on worldwide land use, agricultural production, international trade flows, food prices and food security out to 2030 are evaluated with and without a strict global REDD policy. We address a key methodological challenge of how to model the supply of land in the face of restrictions over its availability, as arises under the REDD policy. The paper introduces a flexible land supply function, which allows for large changes in the total potential land availability for agriculture. Our results show that whilst both RED and REDD are designed to reduce emissions, they have opposing impacts on land use. RED policies are found to extend land use whereas the REDD policy leads to an overall reduction in land use and intensification of agriculture. Strict REDD policies to protect forest and woodland lead to higher land prices in all regions. World food prices are slightly higher overall with some significant regional increases, notably in Southern Africa and Indonesia, leading to reductions in food security in these countries. This said, real food prices in 2030 are still lower than the 2010 level, even with the RED and REDD policies in place. Overall this suggests that RED and REDD are feasible from a worldwide perspective, although the results show that there are some regional problems that need to be resolved. The results show that countries directly affected by forest and woodland protection would be the most economically vulnerable when the REDD policy is implemented. The introduction of REDD policies reduces global trade in agricultural products and moves some developing countries to a net importing position for agricultural products. This suggests that the protection of forests and woodlands in these regions reverses their comparative advantage as they move from being land-abundant to land-scarce regions. The full REDD policy setting, however, foresees providing compensation to these countries to cover their economic losses

Forecasting and Policy Analysis with a Dynamic CGE Model of Australia

The main ideas in this paper are: (i) that CGE models can be used in forecasting; and (ii) that forecasts matter for policy analysis. We demonstrate these ideas by describing an application of MONASH, a dynamic CGE model of Australia, to the Australian motor vehicle industry over the period 1987 to 2016. The key to generating behevable forecasts is to use detailed information available from expert groups specializing in the analysis of different aspects of the economy. In MONASH we incorporate forecasts by specialists: on the domestic macro economy; on Australian economic policy; on world commodity markets; on international tourism; on production technologies; and on consumer preferences. We have found that CGE forecasts incorporating such specialist information are readily saleable to public and private organizations concerned with investment, employment, training and education issues. This is partly because the economywide consistency guaranteed by the CGE approach enables users of economic intelligence to see the disparate forecasts dealing with different parts and aspects of the economy within an integrated perspective. Over the last thirty five years, CGE models have been used almost exclusively as aids to "what if" (usually policy) analysis. In almost all cases it has been assumed that the effects of the shock under consideration are independent of the future path of the economy. Thus, for "what if" analysis, a common implicit view is that reahstic basecase forecasts are unnecessary. Contrary to this view, we find that "what if" answers depend significantly on the basecase forecasts. This is not surprising when we are concerned with unemployment and other adjustment costs. However, we find that basecase forecasts are critical even when our concern is the longrun welfare implications of a policy change. For example, we find that the simulated long-run effects of a tariff cut on imported cars are strongly influenced by the basecase forecast of the rate of technical progress in the car industry relative to that in other industries

The Economy-wide Impacts of a Rise in the Capital Adequacy Ratios of Australian Banks

Regulators are requiring banks to raise additional equity to finance their activities. The benefits are understood in terms of reducing the risks of another financial crisis. But there are potential costs, including the potential for unanticipated macroeconomic impacts as banks reduce leverage. We use a financial computable general equilibrium model, containing disaggregated treatment of financial agents, to explore the economy-wide consequences of an increase in bank capital adequacy ratios. We find that the macroeconomic consequences are small