The primary tools for determining the impact trade liberalization will have on poverty are multi-country Computable General Equilibrium Models (CGEM). However, the models that have been derived from this method have come to some very different results. In recent years these results have also been revised downwards, predicting more moderate gains from trade liberalization. Antoine Boukt, Sr. Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), examines this phenomenon in detail, comparing the merits of the various methodologies, and explaining why their results diverge.
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