Contents :
Since the mid-1980s the world have been witnessing significantand rapid changes in technology, institutions, and the economic environment.The â??globalizationâ? of knowledge, capital finance, and of labor marketsbrought new developmental challenges to the less developed countries. Thisemerging new economic environment has raised serious questions about therelevance of some established strategies and policies for development,methodologies for assessing such policies, and the underlying economic theoryframework. For several decades models for policy evaluation, in variousvariants, have been used extensively by public and private agencies. But, asEl-Issawy indicates in his summary statement at the end of this volume,macroeconomic models are as yet far from being useful in a significant orsubstantial way to policymakers. Economists involved in the modeling field areaware of this deficiency.
For years economists have developed and refinedempirical models to evaluate economic policies. The evolution of macroeconomicmodels have been based on a continuous dialogue between development in economictheory, structural specifications, estimation techniques, and data quality. Thepresent volume is an attempt to take stock of recent developments in the fieldand their application in the Arab and developing countries. It is based on theproceedings of the first International Conference on Economic Policy EvaluationModels organized by the Arab Planning Institute, Kuwait and held in Tunis, Tunisiaon June 12-14, 1995.