Tourism's contribution to the economy of Kenya

Between 1963 and 1980, tourism was one of the top three domestic exports of Kenya, along with coffee and tea. In evaluating an export industry, its linkages with other sectors of the economy, its import content, and its role as a source of domestic income and employment should be considered. This paper attempts such an evaluation of Kenya's tourist industry. Between 1968 and 1976, linkages between the tourism sector and domestic agriculture and food processing were improved. The tourist industry was not particularly import intensive in terms of intermediate goods when compared to the economy as a whole. Employment in and wages paid by the tourist industry were below what is expected when compared to tourism's share of GDP.     

Banking in computable general equilibrium economies

In this paper we develop a computable general equilibrium economy that models the banking sector explicitly. Banks intermediate between households and between the household sector and the government sector. Households borrow from banks to finance their purchases of houses and they lend to banks to save for retirement. Banks pool households' savings and they purchase interest-bearing government debt and non-interest-bearing reserves. We use this structure to answer two sets of questions: one normative in nature that evaluates the welfare costs of alternative monetary and tax policies, and one positive in nature that studies the real effects of following a procyclical interest-rate policy rule.     

Implementation issues for marketable permits: A case study of newsprint

The Congress is considering a marketable permit approach to increase the demand for old newspapers. Although this approach, rather than a uniform standard, results in potential efficiency gains, these gains will be realized only if the policy is enforceable, and an active and competitive permit market develops. This paper highlights the unique features of the marketable permit system under consideration and examines the question of whether the conditions necessary for the full efficiency gains to be realized are likely to be met.     

Mexican agriculture in economy-wide policy: Latitude for special treatment

The Mexican economy has gone through radical transformations in the past 7 years which have been reinforced during the Salinas administration. From the early 60s up to the mid-eighties, Mexico tended to pursue an inward-oriented development strategy. Those economic policies affected negatively the agricultural sector, especially through the indirect effects of the macroeconomic policies. The paper analyzes the role of the agricultural sector in the process of liberalization. It is argued that strategies to develop agriculture must also focus on policies outside the sector, that the level and rate of economic growth is particularly sensitive to investment in public goods, and that an over-investment in these goods might be justified if it induces rural households to engage in political activity that will prevent a movement towards the old policy regime once an economic crisis is resolved.