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LIBERALISING TRADE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A SURVEY OF COMPUTABLE GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM STUDIES
Author(s) -
Mabugu Ramos,
Chitiga Margaret
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
south african journal of economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.502
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1813-6982
pISSN - 0038-2280
DOI - 10.1111/j.1813-6982.2009.01221.x
Subject(s) - computable general equilibrium , poverty , economics , inequality , liberalization , general equilibrium theory , free trade , margin (machine learning) , international economics , macroeconomics , development economics , econometrics , economic growth , mathematics , market economy , mathematical analysis , machine learning , computer science
This paper reviews applications of computable general equilibrium models to trade liberalisation in South Africa. It focuses on economic structure, data, macroeconomic closure and results of the models. The models project that trade liberalisation has had small positive impacts on growth. Poverty and inequality outcomes are less clear cut and depend on the model used. Models with fully integrated micro data find that poverty has worsened slightly while inequality has risen. Aggregated models predict that poverty has been reduced by small amounts. Dynamic models report rising inequality but falling poverty incidence. The paper identifies areas for future research.