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.