Computable General Equilibrium Models in Economics: A Survey on Theoretical Foundations and Applications

Computable general equilibrium (CGE) models have become an increasingly popular tool in macroeconomic analysis. The model tradition has proved particularly suitable for the study of structural changes in economy and long-run impacts of policy measures. The main fields of application include trade policy, fiscal policy, development strategies and environmental and energy policies. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the modeling tradition, its theoretical foundation, characteristic features and main applications. Because the paper serves as a preliminary report to the Government Institute for Economic Research particular attention is paid to the possibilities CGE-modelling offers to research in public economics

Open Government Data Ecosystems: A Closed-Loop Perspective

Open data initiatives have opened new alternatives in creating benefits for the public through secondary use governmental data. From some perspectives, benefits will come from the development of innovative applications using the data, and from the new business models enabled by these applications. From other perspectives, open data applications offer an opportunity for increased citizen participation, improved transparency and accountability. Although the number of published governmental datasets has increased in many countries, producing the expected benefits – and even measuring them – has proven difficult. Creating the expected benefits depends on the development of an ‘ecosystem’ of government actors and private stakeholders that enables multiple forms of interactions and value creation. We propose that modeling and simulation of this open data ecosystem can expand our understanding of its enablers and barriers, leading to improvements in policy making and ultimate outcome of open data initiatives

Notes on Credibility and Stabilization

Do existing theories of stabilization help understand the credibility issues involved in such programs? The experience with stabilization in a hyperinflation setting in Israel and Latin America makes it worthwhile to ask how much existing theories help understand the success and failure of these experiments. Theories typically focus on interaction between policy makers and the public, with imperfect information about the true nature of the government and resulting games. But this model often does not help greatly in explaining stabilization. These notes raise some of the questions left unanswered by the traditional modeling of credibility. The first sections deals with stabilization as a one shot problem. This approach is used to ask what "credibility might mean in a world where it is inconceivable that a program will succeed with probability 1. A model is spelled out where the equilibrium program has an ex ante probability of success. The model draws attention to the factors which raise or lower the probability of success of a stabilization program. The next section deals with the problem of waiting which is familiar from the option literature and recent international applications. It is shown here that in the immediate aftermath of stabilization there is a great difficulty in persuading the public to repatriate assets and engage in irreversible investment except at a large premium. But generating that premium is politically difficult.

Uses of National Accounts; History, International Standardization and Applications in the Netherlands

The national accounts is commonly known by its key-aggregates (e.g. GDP and saving) and their role in public debate and decision-making. However, the national accounts plays many different roles for many different uses. This paper provides an overview of the development of these roles and uses since the seventeenth century. Three periods are distinguished: the early estimates (1660-1930), revolutionary decades (1930-1950) and the era of the international guidelines (1950-present). The paper discusses these roles and uses also much more in detail for one country: the Netherlands, a country which played an important role in modern national accounting and where expert data users, like the CPB, SCP and the Dutch central bank, have developed several interesting applications of the national accounts.Uses of the national accounts, history of national accounting, history of taxation, economic growth, Dutch national accounts, relevance and reliability of the national accounts, Petty, King, Vauban, Quesnay, Keynes, Clark, Kuznets, Leontief, Tinbergen, Hicks, van Cleeff, Stone, Meade, guidelines on national accounting, European unification, macro-economic modeling and forecasting, CPB, SCP, Dutch central bank, fiscal policy, productivity analysis, performance management, national accounts and welfare, measurement in economics

A Data-informed Public Health Policy-Makers Platform

Hearing loss is a disease exhibiting a growing trend due to the number of factors, including but not limited to the mundane exposure to the noise and ever-increasing amount of older population. In the framework of a public health policymaking process, modeling of the hearing loss disease based on data is a key factor in alleviating the issues related to the disease issuing effective public health policies. First, the paper describes the steps of the data-driven policymaking process. Afterward, a scenario along with the part of the proposed platform, responsible for supporting policymaking are presented. With the aim of demonstrating the capabilities and usability of the platform for the policy-makers, some initial results of preliminary analytics are presented in a framework of a policy-making process. Ultimately, the utility of the approach is validated throughout the results of the survey which was presented to the health system policy-makers professionals involved in the policy development process in Croatia

Complex Politics: A Quantitative Semantic and Topological Analysis of UK House of Commons Debates

This study is a first, exploratory attempt to use quantitative semantics techniques and topological analysis to analyze systemic patterns arising in a complex political system. In particular, we use a rich data set covering all speeches and debates in the UK House of Commons between 1975 and 2014. By the use of dynamic topic modeling (DTM) and topological data analysis (TDA) we show that both members and parties feature specific roles within the system, consistent over time, and extract global patterns indicating levels of political cohesion. Our results provide a wide array of novel hypotheses about the complex dynamics of political systems, with valuable policy applications