A social accounting approach to analyzing agribusiness competitiveness

The social accounting methodology compares budgets based on private costs and returns to budgets based on the social values of inputs and outputs. The differences between these two budgets indicate the taxes and subsidies associated with policies or market imperfections. This methodology has been extensively used in analyzing policies in less developed countries. This article demonstrates through examples the application of the methodology to the analysis of competitiveness and efficiency of agribusiness firms and sectors.