Conclusions and Further Research

This is the concluding chapter. We have introduced an approach to handle the design of public economic and environmental polices based on multicriteria decision making in connection with a computable general equilibrium model. This approach endeavours to be both operational and consistent with economic theory. In doing so, we have also tried to build a bridge between operational research methods and economic analysis. We have introduced the notions of efficient policy, compromise policy and satisficing policy, which correspond to different MCDM approaches. Efficient policies guarantee that policy makers do not miss any costless opportunity of improvement. Compromise policies aim to provide policy results that are as close as possible to the optimum values. Satisficing policies fit frameworks in which policy makers are concerned not about optimality but about attaining some target levels for their objectives. We also offer some discussion and guidelines for future research. Coming works could relax some simplifying assumptions that we have introduced to keep our model manageable. Among others, it would be possible to build a dynamic rather than static model, relaxing the small country hypothesis, performing a more accurate analysis of the job market, or explicitly accounting for technical change and pollution abatement activities.