A Fully Calibrated Generalized Constant-Elasticity-of-Substitution Programming Model of Agricultural Supply

This article provides a methodology to exactly calibrate land-constrained programming models of agricultural supply against supply elasticities using generalized constant-elasticity-of-substitution, crop-specific production functions. We formally derive the necessary and sufficient conditions under which the model can replicate a reference allocation while displaying crop supply responses consistent with exogenous information on supply elasticities. When it exists, the solution to the exact calibration problem is unique. Subject to a caveat, the proposed specification is shown to be more flexible with respect to calibration than the quadratic specification that has been used extensively in policy models based on positive mathematical programming. Copyright 2011, Oxford University Press.