Frisch and Tinbergen founded the standard framework for finding the optimal economic policy by maximizing the welfare function under constraints supplied by the econometric model. Frisch worried about the reliability of the model and Tinbergen thought that it would be too difficult to specify...

The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) has been involved in econometric model building since its foundation in 1945. During the 60 years of model building and use reviewed in this Discussion Paper, CPB's models have evolved significantly. Over this period, a shift of...