“The main objective of this paper is to show how Social accounting Matrixes and computable general equilibrium models can be used to highlight and address issues related to income distribution and poverty. The paper is divided into two major parts. The first part of the paper presents the concept of the social accounting matrix (SAM) as a comprehensive, consistent and disaggregated data system and shows how the SAM methodology can be used to analyse issues related to income distribution and, in a much more limited way, poverty. A prototype SAM reflecting the socioeconomic characteristics of an archetype African economy is postulated and used to illustrate the interrelationships among the structure of production, the factorial income distribution, the income distribution by socioeconomic household groups and the expenditure pattern of those groups.The second part is devoted to the presentation of a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model calibrated on the archetype African SAM.”
