16 June 2011

Post date: Jun 16, 2011 4:18:03 PM

Open discussion around the proposition that when using models of social systems to help policymakers, the perception that they only want point predictions may be inaccurate and unhelpful. The responsibility is surely on us, as model builders, to explain what can and cannot be expected from a particular type of model. Discussion of a classification scheme proposed by Peter Allen that classifies models in a way that simplifies this task: a continuum from complexity to many simplifying assumptions.