The history of macroeconometric modeling: An introduction

Abstract

In the past two decades some of the history of economics turned from histories of economic ideas or economic thought, focusing on the study of “theories” and “schools of thought”, to histories of, for example, epistemic mediators such as “models”, “experiments”, “measurements”, and “observations.” The articles in this special issue show that a change of perspective in historical analysis toward the practice of macroeconometric modeling will enrich the history of macroeconomics. The history of macroeconomics is not only a history of ideas, but includes also histories of tools, especially macroeconometric models. These models are never built by one person, but require close cooperation of multiple teams, each from a specific discipline, while their workplaces are not necessarily located at universities. Unlike theories, a tool is designed and made for a specific purpose and have clients. This shift of focus from macroeconomic theories to macroeconometric models will perhaps give as a better understanding of the unfolding of modern economics.