Ayele Gelan

Local economic impacts: The British Open.

Abstract This paper quantifies the local economic impact of the 1999 British Open. Disparate methodological elements in the literature are brought together to establish a consistent analytical framework. It was estimated that about

Cash or Food Aid? A General Equilibrium Analysis for Ethiopia

20.1m of “new money” was injected into the local economy. Accounting for local multiplier effects, the anticipated ripple effect on the regional economy was about

Trade liberalisation and urban-rural linkages: a CGE analysis for Ethiopia

20.8m. The level of economic impact could easily have been overestimated if a carefully structured working methodology had not been employed. The proportion of local goods in the total value of goods and services purchased by tourists provides the most important indicator of economic impact in the study area.

Sustainable local land use policy: rhetoric and reality

This article examines the relative effectiveness of cash and in-kind food aid, using an economy-wide modelling framework and a social accounting matrix constructed for Ethiopia. It argues that cash aid has larger positive effects on household welfare, with multiplier effects on households other than direct recipients, and that food aid provides a disincentive to local food production. However, where cash transfers cause food prices to rise, welfare losses may be suffered by those who are neither targeted nor beneficiaries. The highly aggregated nature of the model allows only a tentative policy recommendation in favour of cash transfers.

Does food aid have disincentive effects on local production? A general equilibrium perspective on food aid in Ethiopia

Abstract Using a rural–urban computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, this paper examines the impacts of trade liberalisation on structural transformation and overall growth of the Ethiopian economy. The simulation experiments suggest that the impacts of trade liberalisation depend on wage-setting conditions in the urban region. With a fixed urban real wage, trade reform adversely affects overall economic growth mainly because of large contractions in the urban region. If urban nominal wage is flexible, both rural and urban regions experience expansion in GDP. An important policy implication of this analysis is that the success of trade liberalisation critically depends on the extent to which product and labour market reforms are synchronised. On the other hand, simultaneous implementations of nominal devaluation and reductions in external trade tariffs would not enhance structural transformation of the economy. However, this policy conflict does not necessarily arise if the introduction and implementation of different policy instruments of trade reforms are appropriately sequenced.

Local economic impacts

Abstract This study examined trends in population redistribution and residential land use changes in northeast Scotland during 1988 to 2003. We utilised a geographical information system (GIS) tool to bring together data from interrelated sources and to analyse population settlement and land use changes at detailed spatial scale. This analysis revealed that substantial land conversion had taken place in the region; particularly conversion of agricultural lands to built-up and residential areas. It also drew attention to policy conflicts, discrepancies between policy rhetoric and policy implementations. More specifically, it was shown that substantial farm land conversion had taken place in suburban areas and rural Aberdeenshire with little change in the size of derelict land in Aberdeen City. The reason given for this was that it was costly to rehabilitate and reuse derelict lands and this conflicted with the objective of providing affordable housing in the City region. The implication of this study is that if the declared policy objectives of integrated and sustainable land use and transport policies are to be achieved, then local authorities may need to cooperate to minimise conflicts between economic and environmental objectives.