Hot air
Are models that show the economic effects of climate change useless?
MODELS simplify. They are supposed to. It is a feature, not a bug. Their formulae may be complex but models deliberately omit some things in order to focus on others. They also leave out factors that cannot be modelled satisfactorily. That is understandable, but what if the factors that cannot be modelled make a huge difference to the outcome? And what if the things that are excluded tend to produce a systematic bias in the results?
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Hot air”
From the October 5th 2013 edition
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