Peter Dorman— Dueling Economic Models and How to Score Them

An article in today’s New York Times compares two wildly different assessments of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade and investment deal, one by the Peterson Institute, a Washington think tank financed by business interests, and the other by the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) of Tufts University. The Peterson people tell us their model predicts income gains from TPP; GDAE’s model predicts losses. The article is strictly he said, she said.

How should economists present their modeling work to the public? And how should journalists report it? The current dispute falls well short of best practice. Here’s how I think it should go:

Econospeak
Dueling Economic Models and How to Score Them
Peter Dorman | Professor of Political Economy, The Evergreen State College

See also

Beat the Press
Dueling Trade Models and the Great Recession
Dean Baker | Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C

On the Economy
Clarifying my take on dueling trade models

Jared Bernstein