The Istat MeMo-It Macroeconometric Model: comments and suggestions for possible extensions

My discussion is articulated in three main points. First, I propose to make MeMo-It the first fully open source Italian Macroeconomic Model; the enlargement of the model's users to those outside Istat would ease the interaction of ideas between researchers interested in the empirical aspects of the Italian politico-economical issues. Second, I analyze the MeMo-It structure in the light of the taxonomy of Pagan (2003). As a result, I suggest that MeMo-It modellers should improve their knowledge of MeMo-It long run properties, in order to rise its degree of coherence with the economic theory, without lowering its current degree of coherence with the data. Third, I introduce some preliminary results to extend the MeMo-It ability to give relevant policy answers: my example is about the interaction of financial markets behaviors and fiscal multipliers, and it tackles the issue of controlling the ratio of public debt on GDP in the long run.