Operations Research and The Revolution in Aggregate Economics

Omega Rho Distinguished Lecture
Operations Research and The Revolution in Aggregate Economics
Edward C. Prescott, Arizona State University and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis

The extension of recursive methods to dynamic equilibrium modeling spawned a revolution in aggregate economics. This revolution has resulted in aggregate economics becoming, like physics, a hard science and not exercises in storytelling. Operations research played a major role in the development of practical methods to model dynamic aggregate economic phenomena and to predict the consequences of policy regimes. Subsequently recursive methods were used to develop a quantitative theory of aggregate fluctuations and other aggregate phenomena.

2012 INFORMS Annual Meeting Phoenix