|
Showing 1 - 6 of
6 matches in All Departments
Three different lines of approach have contributed to the theory of
optimal planning. One approach considers the problem from the
view-point of a national government and its adviser, the
econometrician planning speci alist. The government can, if this is
thought to be desirable, stimulate investment in certain directions
and discourage other economic activities. By various fiscal
devices, it can influence both the total level and the distribution
of investment funds over different sectors of production. Also, in
many countries, a public agency plays some kind of coordinat ing
role in the formulation of long-term plans for output by the enter
prises sector; this may range from administrative direction in
so-called centrally planned economies, to persuasion and advice in
'capitalist' economies. Accordingly, the public planner wishes to
know what dis tribution of the nation's resources would be
'optimal'. This leads to the construction of various models which
may be described under the general heading 'input-output type
models'. This type of model has been largely developed by
practitioners, among whom Sandee [B2] is probably the most
outstanding and the earliest. A later, well-developed example of a
model based on this approach is, for example, the Czech model by
Cerny et al. [Bl]. A second approach considers the problem from the
point of view of the private entrepreneur and his adviser, the
manager and financial accountant.
Services today account for a major share of employment and national
product in the U. S. , with the employment share up from 57 percent
immediately post-war to well over 70 percent today (if
communications, utilities and transportation are included). This
transformation (which is also occurring with varying lags in the
othereconomically advanced economies) is driven by a variety of
forces : by changes in consumer demand, by the rising demand for
health and educational services, by new ways in which businesses
are organized and the increasing importance ofcertain functions (e.
g. new demands for monitoring, financing, sales promotion, and
responding to regulatory agencies), and, closely related, by the
continuing advances in electronic technology. Moreover, these
multiple transformations have been accompanied by changes in the
way work is carried out (e. g. the dramatic increases in the
utilization of white collar workers, particularly professionals and
managers, and the employment of women and educated workers), and by
shifts in the location of work and of the population (e. g. rising
importance of key cities within the urban system and of suburbs
generally). The role of services in modem capitalistic economies is
not yet integrated into the body of economic theory, although the
need for such integration, especially as regards theories ofgrowth,
market structure, and pricing, is critical. Some economists and
sociologists, however, have since the days of Adam Smith, dealt
with certain aspects of the role of services.
Services today account for a major share of employment and national
product in the U. S. , with the employment share up from 57 percent
immediately post-war to well over 70 percent today (if
communications, utilities and transportation are included). This
transformation (which is also occurring with varying lags in the
othereconomically advanced economies) is driven by a variety of
forces : by changes in consumer demand, by the rising demand for
health and educational services, by new ways in which businesses
are organized and the increasing importance ofcertain functions (e.
g. new demands for monitoring, financing, sales promotion, and
responding to regulatory agencies), and, closely related, by the
continuing advances in electronic technology. Moreover, these
multiple transformations have been accompanied by changes in the
way work is carried out (e. g. the dramatic increases in the
utilization of white collar workers, particularly professionals and
managers, and the employment of women and educated workers), and by
shifts in the location of work and of the population (e. g. rising
importance of key cities within the urban system and of suburbs
generally). The role of services in modem capitalistic economies is
not yet integrated into the body of economic theory, although the
need for such integration, especially as regards theories ofgrowth,
market structure, and pricing, is critical. Some economists and
sociologists, however, have since the days of Adam Smith, dealt
with certain aspects of the role of services.
This book is about the specification of linear econometric models,
and for this reason some important related fields have been
deliberately omitted. I did not want to discuss the problems of
parameter-estimation, at least not in any detail, as there are
other books on these problems written by specialized statisticians.
This book is about the models them selves and macro-economic models
in particular. A second related sub ject is the policy decision
that can be made with the help of a model. While I did write a
chapter on policy decisions, I limited myself to some extent
because of my views on planning as such. The logical approach to
this problem is in terms of mathematical programming, but our
models and our ideas about the policies we want are too crude for
its effective utilisation. A realistic formulation of the problem
should involve non linearities in an essential way, the models I
consider (and most existing models) are linear. At the present
state of econometrics, I do not really believe in such a thing as
the 'optimal' plan. The possible result of bad planning or no
planning at all, for instance massive unemployment, sudden
financial crises, unused capital equipment, or the production of
unsalable goods is agreed to be undesirable. Programming methods
may of course be needed, if only for having a systematic algorithm
to find a solution that avoids this kind of 'obvious'
non-optimality. However, the main emphasis is on forecasting
models."
Three different lines of approach have contributed to the theory of
optimal planning. One approach considers the problem from the
view-point of a national government and its adviser, the
econometrician planning speci alist. The government can, if this is
thought to be desirable, stimulate investment in certain directions
and discourage other economic activities. By various fiscal
devices, it can influence both the total level and the distribution
of investment funds over different sectors of production. Also, in
many countries, a public agency plays some kind of coordinat ing
role in the formulation of long-term plans for output by the enter
prises sector; this may range from administrative direction in
so-called centrally planned economies, to persuasion and advice in
'capitalist' economies. Accordingly, the public planner wishes to
know what dis tribution of the nation's resources would be
'optimal'. This leads to the construction of various models which
may be described under the general heading 'input-output type
models'. This type of model has been largely developed by
practitioners, among whom Sandee [B2] is probably the most
outstanding and the earliest. A later, well-developed example of a
model based on this approach is, for example, the Czech model by
Cerny et al. [Bl]. A second approach considers the problem from the
point of view of the private entrepreneur and his adviser, the
manager and financial accountant.
This is a textbook devoted to mathematical programming algorithms
and the mathematics needed to understand such algorithms. It was
mainly written for economists, but the mathematics itself obviously
has relevance for other disciplines. It is a textbook as well a~ in
parts, a contribution to new knowledge. There is, accordingly, a
broad ordering of climbing sophistication, the earlier chapters
being purely for the student, the later chapters being more
specialist and containing some element of novelty on certain
points. The book is edited in five parts. Part I deals with
elementary matrix operations, matrix inversion, determinants, etc.
Part II is mainly devoted to linear programming. As far as
students' readability is concerned, these two parts are elementary
undergraduate material. However, I would claim, in particular with
respect to linear programming, that I do things more efficiently
than the standard textbook approach has it. This refers mainly to
the search for a feasible solution i.e. Chapter 9, and to upper and
lower limits, i.e. Chapter 10. I have also argued that the standard
textbook treatment of degeneracy misses a relevant problem, namely
that of accuracy. In short, I would invite anyone who has the task
of writing or designing an LP-code, to first acquaint himself with
my ideas. viii INTRODUCTION Parts III and IV are concerned with
nonlinear programming.
|
You may like...
Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
|