Models in the Policy Process

How is the computer modeling of socioeconomic systems being used in government decision making? Is it providing the needed guidance? When it is not, why not? What is its future? How can it be made more useful for policy purposes? To address these questions, the authors investigated a multitude of different types of models being applied or developed in a wide variety of policy areas. They examined models of municipal operations, models of the national economy, and models of the world to detail the tensions between policy modeling and policymaking.