Policy analysis matrix : a manual for practitioners

This handbook is a straightforward guide to a particular type of applied economic analysis - the policy analysis matrix (PAM) - which is easily explicable to policymakers and which allows analysts to address three principal issues: commodity pricing, public investment, and agricultural research policy. Following an overview of the manual, chapters 2 and 3 deal with the principles of PAM and of constructing commodity budgets; the purposes are to introduce the logic of the method and to illustrate how one organizes the basic data. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 show how to prepare farm-level/post-farm budgets and private/social valuations; these chapters contain the essence of applying the PAM method and of generating results. Chapter 7 discusses how to interpret the results, and chapter 8 provides practical suggestions on communicating the results, orally and in writing, to busy policymakers. Appendix A demonstrates how a microcomputer can assist the analysis, although the procedures can be done, if tediously, with a hand calculator. (Author abstract, modified)