Applied General Equilibrium Modeling with MPSGE as a GAMS Subsystem: An Overview of the Modeling Framework and Syntax

Abstract

This paper describes a programming environment for economic equilibrium analysis. The system introduces the Mathematical Programming System for General Equilibrium analysis (MPSGE, Rutherford 1987) within the Generalized Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS, Brooke, Kendrick and Meeraus (1988)). This arrangement exploits GAMS' set-oriented algebraic syntax for data manipulation and report writing. The system based on the tabular MPSGE input format provides a compact, non-algebraic representation of a model's nonlinear equations. This paper provides an overview of the modelling environment and three worked examples in tax policy analysis.