MIRAGE team at IFPRI #

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has become one of the main users and developers of the MIRAGE model through efforts led by Antoine Bouët and David Laborde, Senior Research Fellows at IFPRI who have been important contributors to the model since its early days. The focal point of IFPRI activities on MIRAGE is the Globalization and Markets group, hosted by the Markets, Trade and Institution Division.

The model has been used intensively for analyzing the consequences of the WTO negotiations and the success or failure of the Doha Round, as well as regional and bilateral agreements such as the Economic Partnership Agreements between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and analysis of the consequences of export taxes on food security.

In addition, to trade policy assessments, IFPRI team has introduced innovative features to the MIRAGE model that enable its application in studying biofuels policies, the impact of financial crisis on developing countries, climate change and the agricultural price volatility.

MIRAGE is also a core resource used for training sessions on trade policy assessment provided by the IFPRI team to developing country economists within the framework of the International Policy Analysis Network (IPAN) funded by the Hewlett Foundation. Researchers in several developing countries, including Peru, Sri Lanka, Senegal, and Morocco have benefited from an extended training in the MIRAGE model and have used it to assess trade agreements involving their countries. It is also an important component of the [ http://www.agrodep.org AGRODEP] project aimed to provide state of the art modeling tools to African researchers.

The MIRAGE team at IFPRI is today composed of the following researchers:

• Fousseini Traoré
• Valérie Pineiro
• Joseph Glauber
• Abdullah Mamun
• Will Martin

The team develops and administrates several specialized versions of the MIRAGE model:

• MIRAGE-HH: A version of the MIRAGE model allowing for a full bottom-up approach of disaggregated households;
• MIRAGE-Biof dedicated to the analysis of Biofuel policies and land use related policies;
• MIRAGE-CC used for long term projections with a focus on climate change issues;
• MIRAGRODEP a simplified and flexible version of the MIRAGE model used for capacity building.

In addition, a library of specialized routines to correct the GTAP database or includes additional databases has been developed.