Designing public policies. An approach based on multi-criteria analysis and computable general equilibrium modeling. (Q971787)

The book presents a methodological approach for the joint design of economic and environmental policies by combining two different analytical strategies: the computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis, a standard tool mostly used to quantify the impact of economic measures or changes in the structural data of the economy, and the multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach, an optimisation technique that deals with problems with more than one objectives. The starting point for this combination was the observation that, in practice, policy makers do not usually have a well-defined objective, but they are typically concerned about a number of economic and environmental indicators that conflict with each other. The aim of the authors was to provide an alternative approach to policy design founded on economics but also operational and consistent with observed practice. The book offers a unified view of the aforementioned novel approach, paying special attention to the connections between economic and environmental objectives. The methodological foundations are presented as well as some real applications that illustrate the pragmatic value of the theoretical proposal.