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This article presents a geometric and algebraical approach to teach the concept of elasticity for undergraduate students with different levels of knowledge in mathematics and pointing out why it is necessary to introduce it from the idea of the slope of a function. To achieve this objective a short review of the literature of the main properties associated with elasticity is carried out, without separating them from their historical development, to illustrate a way of presenting the concept in a discrete or continuous way and using geometric arguments or algebraic expressions. Due to the flexibility of the concept, and taking into account the previous knowledge of the student, it is concluded that this approach is a more adequate way to teach the concept. JEL CLASSIFICATION: A22, D11, D21 CONTENT: Introduction; 1. The concept of elasticity in economics; 2. A short introductory history of the development of elasticity properties in economics; 3. Elasticity calculation and geometric interpretation of some demand and supply functions; 4. Strategies that can be used to teach the concept of elasticity; 5. Conclusions; Bibliography. RESUMEN Este artículo presenta una aproximación geométrica y algebraica para enseñar el concepto de elasticidad a estudiantes de pregrado universitario con diferentes niveles de conocimiento en matemáticas y señala el por qué es necesario introducirlo a partir de la idea de la pendiente de una función. Para alcanzar este objetivo, se realizó una breve revisión de literatura sobre las principales propiedades asociadas con la elasticidad, sin separarlas de su contexto y desarrollo histórico, para así ilustrar una forma de presentar el concepto de manera discreta o continua que se valga de argumentos geométricos o expresiones algebraicas. Debido a la flexibilidad del concepto y teniendo en cuenta los conocimientos previos del alumno, se concluye que este enfoque es una forma más adecuada para enseñar el concepto. CLASIFICACIÓN JEL: A22, D11, D21 CONTENIDO: Introducción; 1. El concepto de elasticidad en economía; 2. Una breve historia introductoria acerca del desarrollo de las propiedades de la elasticidad en la economía; 3. Cálculo de la elasticidad e interpretación geométrica de algunas funciones de demanda y oferta; 4. Estrategias que se pueden aplicar para enseñar el concepto de elasticidad; 5. Conclusiones; Bibliografía. RESUMO Este artigo apresenta uma abordagem algébrica e geométrica para ensinar o conceito de elasticidade a estudantes de graduação com diferentes níveis de conhecimento de matemática e aponta por que é necessário apresentá-lo a partir da ideia da pendente de uma função. Para atingir esse objetivo, foi feita uma revisão breve da literatura das principais propriedades associadas à elasticidade, sem separar estas do seu desenvolvimento histórico, para ilustrar a maneira de apresentar o conceito de uma forma discreta ou contínua, e usando argumentos geométricos ou expressões algébricas. Dada a flexibilidade do conceito e considerando o conhecimento prévio do estudante, concluiu-se que essa abordagem é mais adequada para ensinar o conceito. CLASSIFICAÇÃO JEL: A22, D11, D21 CONTEÚDO: Introdução; 1. O conceito de elasticidade na Economia; 2. Uma breve história introdutória do desenvolvimento das propriedades de elasticidade na Economia; 3. Cálculo da elasticidade e interpretação geométrica de algumas funções da procura e da oferta; 4. Estratégias que podem ser usadas para ensinar o conceito de elasticidade; 5. Conclusões; Bibliografia.

As a small and open economy, Belarus' development perspectives are intrinsically linked to its ability to produce and sell goods and services competitively in the global marketplace. While Belarus is an open economy, its trade links are concentrated both in terms of products and markets. Mineral goods –most importantly refined oil and potassium chloride - are the main export product accounting for more than 1/3 of total exports. Non mineral exports, including most importantly machinery, vehicles and transport equipment are mostly exported to Russia and other CIS markets, which account for 74 percent of non-mineral exports while the share of EU countries in Belarus non-mineral exports account for less than 15 percent. With Russia's WTO accession in 2012 competitive pressures on Belarus’ major market for non-mineral exports have further intensified. As Belarus is accelerating its own negotiations with the WTO, understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by the country's exporters is critical to putting in place an effective adaptation strategy that will enhance competitiveness and ensure Belarus can take full advantage of more open market access. The objective of this note is to analyze the economic impacts of Belarus' potential accession to the WTO. The note utilizes a modern computable general equilibrium model of the economy of Belarus to simulate impacts on the economy as a whole and on individual sectors.

Evidence indicates that trade costs are a much more substantial barrier to trade than tariffs are, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper decomposes trade costs into: (i) trade facilitation, (ii) non-tariff barriers, and (iii) the costs of business services. The paper assesses the poverty and shared prosperity impacts of deep integration to reduce these three types of trade costs in: (i) the East African Customs Union–Common Market of East and Southern Africa–South African Development Community "Tripartite" Free Trade Area; (ii) within the East African Customs Union; and (iii) unilaterally by the East African Customs Union. The analysis employs an innovative, multi-region computable general equilibrium model to estimate the changes in the macroeconomic variables that impact poverty and shared prosperity. The model estimates are used in the Global Income Distribution Dynamics microsimulation model to obtain assessments of the changes in the poverty headcount and shared prosperity for each of the simulations for the six African regions or countries. The paper finds that these reforms are pro-poor. There are significant reductions in the poverty headcount and the percentage of the population living in poverty for all six of the African regions from deep integration in the Tripartite Free Trade Area or comparable unilateral reforms by the East African Customs Union. Further, the incomes of the bottom 40 percent of the populations noticeably increase in all countries or regions that are engaged in the trade reforms. The reason for the poor share in prosperity is the fact that the reforms increase unskilled wages faster than the rewards of other factors of production, as the reforms tend to favor agriculture. Despite the uniform increases in income for the poorest 40 percent, there are some cases where the share of income captured by the poorest 40 percent of the population decreases. The estimated gains vary considerably across countries and reforms. Thus, countries would have an interest in negotiating for different reforms in different agreements.

Evidence illustrates that investment in infrastructure is essential to accelerate inclusive growth. Indeed, a number of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have begun to devote greater resources to large-scale public investment projects. Nevertheless, while massive projects can potentially generate large benefits there are considerable risks. Cost overruns, poor implementation quality, inadequate operational and maintenance capacity, and negative social or environmental impacts can severely undercut a project’s anticipated social and economic returns. Moreover, projects, which are expensive to develop and maintain can impact on debt dynamics and in some cases macroeconomic stability. Yet, given the complex nature of such projects it is often difficult to ascertain whether it is worthwhile to proceed with a project and if so, how should it be financed and implemented. Historically, computable general equilibrium (CGE) models have been used to assess the prospective impacts of large public investment projects. However, such models are a complex and time-consuming process and are often too broad to precisely capture the localized impact of specific projects. This paper proposes a simple, but more user-friendly model. By inputting information on the project’s construction, operation, and anticipated returns, the user is able to assess the project’s net impact on the economy and weigh up the costs and benefits of different approaches. The model was developed in response to a request from the Nigerien authorities to assess the macroeconomic impact of Niger’s Kandaji Dam project. It found that while costs would equal more than 10 percent of 2013 GDP during 2014-48, the expansion of domestic production spurred by increased demand during the construction phase will increase GDP by 0.25 percent above the baseline projection and boost fiscal revenues by an additional 0.45 percentage points of GDP.

In a market economy, property and private initiative in holding shares prevailing state intervention adds to the free play of competition in order to direct the production, prices and to help rebalance the market with prices, the indirect taxes or subsidies.

In this paper we investigate natural gas producer's reactions to changes in market prices. We estimate price elasticities of aggregated supply in the most competitive market for natural gas: the United States. Using monthly time series data form 1987 to 2012 our analysis is based on an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bound Cointegration approach to obtain short and long-run elasticities of natural gas supply. Results suggest that natural gas producers in a competitive market are not able to react to prices in the very short-run but respond inelastic in the long-run. These findings are not only of great value for policy makers but also for gas market modelers.

経済学 / Economics, In 2010, concerns regarding Japan’s excessive dependence on imports for food and energy caused the Japanese government to introduce subsidies to stimulate biofuel crop production. In this paper, we study the viability of price subsidies and certain other policies with respect to increasing the production of biofuel crops. First, we estimate the elasticity of the supply of Japanese agriculture with respect to price (inclusive of the subsidy for each unit of production). For this purpose, we use a longitudinal database of 1822 municipalities that covers all 47 prefectures of Japan. This database includes information about the production of 116 crops and their respective revenues, including subsidies. Using panel data regression techniques, we determine that although the long-run supply of certain crops is highly elastic, this supply is highly inelastic if the production of other crops is held constant. Therefore, an increase in the demand for biofuel crops will cause substantial price increases of agricultural products, largely crowding out the demand for food crops. We then discuss the viability of encouraging various agricultural practices, such as multiple cropping and the cultivation of recently abandoned land. Instead of using abandoned land, which produces a lower yield and requires abundant labor, we recommend a multiple cropping system that involves the rotation of rice and wheat. Although these measures will increase biofuel crop production to a certain extent in the short run, full-scale biofuel crop production can only take place after substantial reforms are implemented to increase the production capacity of the Japanese agricultural sector., JEL Classification Codes: Q18, Q42, Q53, http://www.grips.ac.jp/list/jp/facultyinfo/leon_gonzalez_roberto/

There is increasing evidence suggesting that climate change will negatively impact agricultural production in South Asia. Decreased domestic production may make South Asian countries more dependent on imports. The extent to which South Asia will need to increase its imports as a result of climate change will presumably depend on the degree to which the latter will affect domestic output. The effects of climate change on agriculture may well differ substantially for individual South Asian countries and indeed for regions within a given country which can be approximated by food production units. This calls for an analysis of climate change effects on trade flows under alternative trade policy regimes both for agriculture and non-agricultural sectors. The specific objectives of the paper include the following: analyze the extent to which agricultural production in South Asia and elsewhere in the world may be affected by different scenarios regarding climate change; analyze the extent to which changes in domestic production in South Asia resulting from climate change will lead to increased demand for imports by South Asian countries; analyze the effects of increased import demand in South Asia and changing exportable surpluses elsewhere on world market prices of major agricultural commodities consumed in South Asia; to the extent that South Asian governments allow transmission of changes in world market prices to domestic prices, analyze the potential welfare effects of changes in the latter; analyze if, and to what extent, worldwide trade liberalization and implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) will dampen the effects of climate change on domestic agricultural prices in South Asia. In this context, the report is organized as follows: chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two describes the methodology used - with particular attention to how different models and modeling techniques are linked to produce an as accurate as possible assessment based on state-of-the-art knowledge. Chapter three provides an up-to-date analysis of trade flows and policies, and production patterns for key food products in South Asia to explain the context in which climate change is taking place. Chapter four describes the climate change scenarios and illustrates their consequences for crop yields at a global level and for South Asia - and in particular shows the vulnerability of the region to these changes. Baseline design, simulations, and results are discussed in chapter five. The final chapter six provides a short summary, discusses the limitations of the analysis, and derives suggestions and guidelines for future research.

The introduction of agricultural reforms has debatable effects on food security in developing countries. This research investigates how such effects influenced maize supply in two developing countries which were among the first to introduce agricultural reforms. Conclusions from the research suggest that agricultural reforms led to mixed results. This may be attributed to the sometimes stop-go nature of reform implementation. The mixed results are reflected in the weak maize output response to price changes. Overall country economic conditions, state of agricultural development can be attributed to the pace of response, hence effect on agricultural supply. Elasticity of maize output to changes in price and acreage are strongly significant in maize output for the case of Kenya. Both restricted models of maize production suggest that prior to the introduction of reforms acreage, prices and alternative crops were more elastic when simulated with Zambian data than with Kenyan data.

A general equilibrium modeling approach is used to estimate the effects within Indonesia of unilateral and global trade liberalization, including effects on poverty incidence. It is concluded that global reform of trade policy in all commodities is a significant potential source of poverty reduction for Indonesia. The poor rural and urban have a strong interest in global trade policy reform. If Indonesia were to liberalize unilaterally, poverty incidence also will decline but the effect is small. If liberalization is confined to agricultural products, the effects are similar but the declines in poverty incidence within Indonesia are much smaller.

This paper identifies simple conditions for monotone compara- tive statics of a unique equilibrium in the Akerlof-Wilson model. Separate conditions apply to trade volume and price. Trade volume increases when supply becomes both stronger and more elastic. In contrast, price decreases when supply becomes both stronger and less elastic. An application to the interbank market suggests surprisingly specific measures to address elevated term rates and market breakdown.

Wallace's (1962) pioneering study brought to agricultural economics a focus on the role of supply and demand elasticity's in determining the efficiency with which agricultural policy transfers income among interest groups. His discussion provides key insights into what I call the "consequences of policy" side of current models of political economy. Becker's (1983) and Grossman and Helpman's (1994) models, both famously seminal in the political economy literature, have such "consequences" sides, and therefore when agricultural policy is examined in their models' frameworks, market elasticity's play key roles. These two models have also "causes of policy" sides, which describe interest groups' abilities to create political pressure. Wallace aim is to provide a theoretical review and exposition of the effects of elasticity's on redistribution efficiency, and in turn on distortional policies in political economic equilibrium. He demonstrates how models of actual political economies might be built and used to derive theoretical predictions about how market elasticity's affect policy and income transfers. Applying similar models to examine real world political economies can provide testable hypotheses about how market parameters affect distortional policies.

The effective market access granted to textiles and apparel under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is estimated, taking into account the presence of rules of origin. First, estimates are provided of the effect of tariff preferences combined with rules of origin on the border prices of Mexican final goods exported to the United States (U.S.) and of U.S. intermediate goods exported to Mexico, based on eight-digit harmonized system tariff-line data. A third of the estimated rise in the border price of Mexican apparel products is found to compensate for the cost of complying with NAFTA's rules of origin, and NAFTA is found to have raised the price of U.S. intermediate goods exported to Mexico by around 12 percent, with downstream rules of origin accounting for a third of that increase. Second, simulations are used to estimate welfare gains for Mexican exporters from preferential market access under NAFTA. The presence of rules of origin is found to approximately halve these gains.

A political economy model of protection is used to determine endogenously the intersectoral patterns of protection. Three propositions are derived that are consistent with the stylized patterns of tariff protection in rich and poor countries: Nominal protection rates escalate with the degree of processing, protection is higher on average in poor countries, and rich countries protect agriculture relatively more than they protect manufacturing, whereas poor countries do the reverse. Numerical simulations for archetypal rich and poor economies confirm that the endogenously determined structure of protection is broadly consistent with observed patterns of protection.

If a production process is characterized by a homogeneous production function, the conditions required for profit maximization imply that the elasticity of demand for each input must be elastic with respect to output price. This restriction limits the usefulness of these functions in empirical analysis.