Economy-Wide Models for Developing Countries,with Emphasis on Food Production and Distribution

Hunger and malnutrition are persistent problems in many developing countries. Policies required to overcome these problems are difficult to identify, whereas the experience in planning policies in their broadest sense for this purpose is limited. In this paper, economy-wide models constructed for this purpose by the Centre for World Food Studies are described, with special emphasis on a model for Bangladesh. Its application is demonstrated in assessing alternative policies for two specific cases, i.e. the subsidization of synthetic fertilizers and food rationing. Other applications are briefly described. Construction of the models has involved the development of software to facilitate the execution and organization of the work and also problem-specific algorithms. Reference is made to these in the paper.