A Framework for Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) for Sri Lanka

The use of Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) has a long history similar to the input-output (I-O)accounting approach. A detailed SAM focusing on the structure of an economy and the link betweenproduction, income distribution and institutions can be used directly for policy analysis as well as adatabase for an economy-wide economic model. Although a large number of SAMs have been developedfor many other developing countries in recent years under the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI) and the Micro Impact of Macro Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) research projects, not a singledetailed SAM has been compiled for Sri Lanka (except for a few aggregated SAMs) for the last twodecades or so. Therefore, there has been an urgent need to compile a SAM for Sri Lanka to developeffective policies and to undertake effective economic policy analyses using an economy-wide modellingframework.