Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 28,2(December 1996):393-407 0 1996 Southern Agricultural Economics Association Evaluating the Impacts of Agricultural Exports on a Regional Economy

Agricultural exports are important to many regional economies, as is the case for agricul-tural exports either produced in or shipped through Louisiana. A hybrid (revised and verified) IMPLAN model of the Louisiana economy is used to estimate the direct and indirect impact of agricultural exports. Original model estimates of foreign exports lacked holistic (overall) accuracy. However, other, more general uses of the model were unaffected by this lack of accuracy. While the contributions of agricultural exports to the state econ-omy were substantial, impacts were concentrated in unprocessed products. Increasing the export of processed agricultural products should enhance economic activity. Key Words: agricultural exports, holistic accuracy, IMPLAN, input-output models, pro-cessed exports. International trade is important to the econom-ic well-being of a nation and a region. In 1991, the United States was the world’s largest trad-ing nation, accounting for 14 % of world im-ports and 12 % of world exports. The European Community, Canada, and Japan are the major U.S. trading partners. However, exports to many developing countries, particularly in Asia and Latin America, have increased in re-cent years (see “The United States, ” in Trade Policy Review). Further increases in U.S. trade are project-ed due to signing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The former will eventually lower trade barri-ers on a worldwide basis, while the latter will The authors are former graduate research assistant an