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<br />assumptions implicit in the SOE approach: the region takes the world prices as given and <br />differences in products by origin are accommodated through the Armington functions. Since the <br />bulk of the region's trade is with the rest of the U. S., the assumption of "world" prices is a <br />reasonable one. In keeping with the SOE assumptions, the flow of funds from outside the region <br />are fixed at the baseline levels. This condition is based on the fact that the regional economy, <br />while large in absolute terms, is a fairly small part of the national economy. <br /> <br />Domestic consumers are assumed to have a CES utility function over domestic produced and <br />imported goods (for a given category of goods): <br /> <br />x = A C [0 u.-p, + (I -0) XD .-p'] -lip, <br />, , r""", ; I <br /> <br />where At and OJ are constants estimated from the baseline data and a is the elasticity of <br />substitution between domestic and imported goods and OJ = II ( I + pJ. Consumers are <br />assumed to choose a mix of domestic and imported goods which minimizes the cost of obtaining <br />a level of utility. <br /> <br />On the supply side, a comparable construction yields a CET function between domestically <br />consumed (XD;) and exported (Ej) goods: <br /> <br />X;D = A/ [Y,E;8, + (I -Y;) XD;8,]1I8, <br /> <br />where J(D is domestic output, A/ and Yi are constants estimated from the baseline data, and the <br />elasticity of transformation between domestic consumption and exports is w; = 1/(1-8;). <br />Produ~ers are assumed to maximize revenues from a given level of domestic production by <br />allocating this domestic and export sales. For a regional economy, the exchange rate is 1.0 (most <br />of the trade appears as transactions with the rest of the U.S.) so export and domestic prices are <br />identical. <br /> <br />The CGE model describes a regional economy within the u.S. economy. For a regional <br />economy there are no trade deficits. Any difference between real imports and real exports is <br /> <br />19 <br />