A 2014 Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) for Uzbekistan with a Focus on the Agricultural Sector

Social accounting matrices (SAMs) are the core underlying data for economy-wide simulation models such as computable general equilibrium models. This paper reports the development of a SAM for Uzbekistan for the year 2014. The last SAM developed for Uzbekistan is based on the year 2001 (Müller, 2006) and Uzbekistan is listed among the top ten countries by GDP and population by the Global Trade and Analysis Project for which a recent input-output is missing. The SAM documented in this technical paper is characterized by a detailed representation of the agricultural sector. Generally, data availability in Uzbekistan is a challenge and the development process had to rely on myriad data sources. The final SAM values are estimated using an information-theoretic, cross-entropy approach. Using a Bayesian perspective, the degree of uncertainty of cell entries’ prior values reflected the availability and quality of data sources. In total, this SAM consists of 88 accounts. There are 31 commodity accounts and 31 accounts describe economic activities of which 17 activities are part of the agricultural sector. The factor accounts comprise five types of labor, capital, and main natural resources: land and water. There are three household accounts, one government, and five tax accounts. The authors hope that this SAM will allow researchers to investigate research questions that are of high priority for Uzbekistan’s future economic development, particularly those related to the future role of agriculture and water.