Global crisis and agricultural public spending in Kenya: a SAM Multiplier Approach

This paper focuses on Kenya with the purpose of understanding the role of public spending in the primary
sector in addressing the current food crisis and in contributing to overall economic growth and alleviating poverty and
food insecurity according to the first Millennium Development Goal. The empirical investigation, based on the 2003
Social Accounting Matrix, integrates two distinguished models - the unconstrained and constrained multiplier
models - for a better characterisation of the country’s economic linkages in a context of international market
volatility. Results point to the potential positive impact of government intervention in agriculture on economic
development and its limits, particularly with reference to the growth-equity nexus.