2016 Training Course - Multi-Country, Multi-Sector General Equilibrium Analysis: MIRAGRODEP-AEZ

Event Date
Location
Dakar, Senegal

The course aims at presenting and training members on the MIRAGRODEP-AEZ model built at IFPRI under the Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation (PARI), in partnership with the Center for Development Research (ZEF)-University of Bonn. 

Applications for this series will be accepted until October 14, 2016. Course outline and description are subject to change.

Overview

The goal of the PARI project is to support the scaling of agricultural innovation through science and technology by means of dedicated cooperation between research and application. The program covers the twelve following countries: Benin, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia.

Under PARI, AGRODEP contributes to the accompanying research with outlook and future oriented impact analyses and the design and assessment of technological and institutional innovations.  The specific tasks coordinated by AGRODEP, supported by IFPRI are:

  • the development of a core GIS based tool (e-Atlas) for the visualization of a list of agriculture, socioeconomic, basic biophysical and climate data
  • the elaboration for each country of a rural typology of micro-regions to identify micro-regional level opportunities, bottlenecks and investment gaps
  • the design of an analytical framework to implement the technological scenarios for the project through economic modeling.

To assess technological innovations impact on agricultural growth and food security, IFPRI has designed a new and customized model, MIRAGRODEP-AEZ, based on the MIRAGRODEP Computable General Equilibrium model already available on AGRODEP model library.  The MIRAGRODEP-AEZ will work at the sub national level (using agro ecological zones). The aim is to make a link with both the typology data and the crop models being developed by ZEF.

The training will consist of learning how to use the MIRAGRODEP-AEZ model on a step by step basis with real examples from Ghana.

Course Outline

Online Module (25h) (Available to course Participants only)
 
Onsite Activities:

The training will cover three days as follows

 

Day 1

The MIRAGRODEP MODEL

Day 2

Designing MIRAGRODEP for PARI: MIRAGRODEP-AEZ

Day 3

Scenarios for PARI

Morning session

Presentation of the core MIRAGRODEP model: equations, data and closure rules

Theoretical modifications for the PARI project

Presentation of typology scenarios

Scenarios for Ghana: implementation and discussion of results

Afternoon session

Running basic scenarios with MIRAGRODEP

Presentation of the scenarios from the crop models

Customizing the model for a specific country: data issues

Next steps and strategies for the remaining PARI countries

 

Prerequisites

It is expected that candidates have an advanced level of microeconomic theory.

Ideally candidates should have previous experience with CGE modeling with GAMS. Those who attended previous AGRODEP trainings in CGE modeling are highly encouraged to participate. 

APPLICATION

In order to apply for this course, AGRODEP members must complete the following by October 14, 2016:

Instructors

Dr. David Laborde is a Senior Research Fellow and leader of the “Globalization and Markets” research program in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division (MTID) of IFPRI. His research interests include international trade, measurement and modeling of protectionism, multilateral and regional trade liberalization as well as environmental issues (climate change, biofuels). He has developed the MAcMapHS6 and the TRAD databases on tariffs as well as the TASTE software. He is a contributor to the GTAP database and a GTAP research fellow since 2005. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was an Economist at the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales (CEPII), Paris between 2003 and 2007 and lecturer at the Université de Pau in France. He received his PhD from the University of Pau in 2008. He has also worked as consultant for the European Commission, the Economic Commission for West Africa, the World Bank, USAID, and various UN agencies.
 
Dr. Fousseini Traore is a Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division (MTID) of IFPRI. He received a Ph.D. in Agricultural economics from the Centre for Studies and Research on International Development (CERDI), University of Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 2010. He also received a double M.A. in Development economics and in Projects appraisal from the University of Clermont-Ferrand. Prior to Joining IFPRI, he was a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France. He has conducted research on various topics in agricultural trade, global cotton subsidies and access to energy in rural areas in Africa. He is also involved in capacity building actions in higher education in Africa through expatriate nationals.