If the modeller believes that trade raises productivity and growth, for example, then the model's results will mechanically confirm this.

ECONOMIST: Economic models

Though not properly trained as an economist, he had proved himself as a macroeconomic modeller, and had been made a university professor of applied economics.

ECONOMIST: Wynne Godley, British economist, died on May 13th, aged 83

To give a simple example: if two shrewd, competing ice-cream sellers share a long beach, they will set up stalls back-to-back in the middle and stay put, explains Stephen Black, a modeller in the firm's London headquarters.

ECONOMIST: Modelling behaviour