History of macroeconometric modelling: lessons from past experience

This paper reviews the general literature on macroeconometric modelling and highlights some important lessons from more than half a century of model-building. It appears that from the late 1940s to the 1960s, this field has contributed to the expanding knowledge of both economists and econometricians. However, from the early 1970s, several issues invalidated the use of macroeconometric models (MEMs). These issues are analysed in this paper. It is, inter alia, argued that with advancement of econometric "know-how," the disparity of opinions between advocates and critics of macroeconometric modelling can be narrowed. (C) 2004 Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.