Valeria Ferreira

Forming the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a key step towards Africa's economic integration, promoting intra‐African trade and sustainable growth. This study employs the Dynamic Equilibrium Model for Economic Development, Resources and Agriculture (DEMETRA) developed by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. DEMETRA is calibrated using Tanzania's 2015 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) to assess the impact of the AfCFTA on the country's fruits and vegetables subsectors. Throughout the simulation period, fruit imports in Tanzania are projected to increase by 65.7%, reaching 25.2 billion Tanzanian shillings (Tshs) in value, while exports, particularly under the revenue enhancement (REV) schedule, are expected to grow to 128.9 billion Tshs in value. Vegetable imports are expected to increase in value by 5.3%, while exports are projected to decline by 1.5%. The study encourages authorities to strategically utilize the revenue enhancement (REV) schedule to optimize export profits and recommends enhancing agricultural infrastructure and resources to support sustainable export growth.

The bioeconomy includes the sectors that use renewable biological resources to produce value added products, such as food, feed, energy, and bio-based products. Its importance has been demonstrated by its inclusion as a priority in specific and related policies such as the bioeconomy strategy, the Sustainable Development Goals, the European Green Deal, and the Next Generation recovery plan. Spain has not lagged behind and considers the bioeconomy as a priority in its policy strategies to achieve a more sustainable economy. Despite its importance, the analysis of the potential of the bioeconomy sectors in Spain is limited. To carry out policy-relevant impact assessment in support of bioeconomy development, specific databases describing bio-based products are required. Hence, this work based on the Bio Social Accounting Matrix (BioSAM) for Spain for the year 2010 with a high disaggregation of bio products to perform a structural analysis based on two different and complementary methods: the traditional and the Hypothetical Extraction approach. The structural analysis results reveal promising products as key wealth generators and growth promoters and allow to identify the most suitable to be stimulated with policies to promote the development of the Spanish bioeconomy. Therefore, this paper provides some proposed avenues that should be considered by policymakers.

Ghana shows remarkable differences in employment and welfare between the southern and northern regions. The promotion of policy focus on the development of the northern regions requires the elaboration of specific databases describing the regional economies. Hence, this work outlines the construction of a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Ghana for the year 2015 with a high disaggregation of sectors, household income groups and education levels across 10 administrative regions. Linear multisectoral models have been applied to this SAM to estimate socio-economic impacts of potential final demand policies down to a regional level in the Ghanaian economy. Further on, the structural path analysis is used to investigate the role played by different agriculture commodities in transmitting income to different types of households. The results allow for an identification of the most suitable sectors to be promoted due to their ability to generate the highest increases in output, employment and value added in the rest of the economy, as well as those with a significant impact on household income generation. As a result, the primary sector will play a key role in the economic and employment growth of the country. Notably, sorghum and millet, pulses, tobacco, cotton and fibres can be considered favourable crops for development in the Northern region.

The bioeconomy emerges as an opportunity to focus on a more sustainable economy, avoid dependence on non-renewable resources and help to mitigate negative environmental impacts. The bioeconomy is considered a priority for the European Union and for Spain, which launched its strategy in 2016. To promote the Spanish bioeconomy, the impact and variables that may influence its development must be known. While previous works have analyzed the domestic sectors, this paper focuses on analyzing the economic importance of Spanish bioeconomy products and on the influence of and the existing links between the foreign sector and the rest of the economy. For this purpose, we apply two different methodologies based on linear social accounting matrix (SAM) models. The linkages show that many bioeconomy products have the potential to promote the rest of the economy and the values of some product multipliers become more significant due to their import dependence. These results enable us to know the structure of the Spanish bioeconomy and the relationships within its account. This analysis is a useful tool for developing policies focused on fostering the bioeconomy and economic growth.