© Scott McDonald
Estimating a Social Accounting Matrix: Online Course
Scott McDonald and Sherman Robinson
This course is self-directed and unsupported self-learning course
The course will be available from autumn 2024
There are four (4) modules in the course:
- Theory of Social Accounting
- Using RAS to reconcile SAMs with limited information
- SAM Estimation with Info-metrics: Theory and Application
- Project: Estimating a SAM
This is an advanced course designed to meet the requirements of participants who want to understand the processes involved in estimating a SAM. This course uses advanced GAMS skills: participants must have well developed GAMS skills with appreciable GAMS experience.
The first module provides an introduction to the theory of social accounting; the primary objectives are to establish a common understanding and language. The second module is used to introduce the SAM estimation problem and demonstrate how limited information and/or 'weak' prior estimates compromise the estimation process: it uses the RAS method in GAMS. The third module has two components that are interwoven: theory and application. The theory components introduce the theories of estimation with limited information and the related maximum and cross entropy metrics. The application components use the SAMEST programme to estimate a SAM and involve progressively adding information and fine tuning the options offered in the SAMEST programme. The final module is a project wherein you use data provided to estimate a SAM.
The course is open source and unsupported, i.e., no tutorial supported is available.
The materials are delivered from www.cgemod.org.uk
Participants should plan a SAM estimation project of their own that will be undertaken in parallel with the course: experience indicates that embedding the skills explored in this course is important.
Further information
Contact: Scott McDonald (scott@cgemod.org.uk)