Overview and Conclusion: Regulatory Progress

The perennial quest of human beings to foresee what the future holds is prompted by the goal to better their lot, and secure or manage their lives satisfactorily. This vital concern has spurred research by various parties — including scientists and practitioners — in all realms of life. Such research applies to the field of social studies, of which economics is an integral part. In the natural sciences, theories and laws on physical phenomena — with respect to their determinants and their manifestation — can be established with certainty or a relatively high degree of confidence and accuracy. By comparison, social phenomena are less amenable to precise definition, measurement or forecasting: the definitive understanding of underlying causes and interactions among various key variables in this area is still elusive. Consequently, predictions often contain a significant degree of uncertainty — especially in view of the likely occurrence of unanticipated factors. Nevertheless, large strides have been accomplished in recent years to improve methods and tools of analysing and forecasting economic phenomena. Empirical investigations have sought to identify key regularities of factors, actions, behavioural patterns or expected outcomes in social phenomena — such as financial crises. Objective analysis should help all concerned to better comprehend past and current events, and to influence future developments positively — be it at the level of the firm or at that of the national economy.