Co-Operation between Politicians and Econometricians on the Formalization of Political Preferences

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to make a plea for a new type of cooperation between politicians and econometricians. The new type of cooperation consists in formalizing the preference function which must underlie the very concept of an optimal economic policy. A preference function is simply a function of some of the variables that enter into a description of the economy, the function being such that the maximization of it can be looked upon as the definition of the goal to be obtained by the economic policy.KeywordsPreference FunctionInterview QuestionOptimal PricePreferential VariablePolitical PreferenceThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.