The status of planning: an overview Chapter I

Abstract

Development planning is a complex process involving many different organizations and individual agents interacting in the formulation and execution of a country's economic and social policies. This volume deals with one aspect in this process. the use of economy wide planning models, before beginning this review of technique and practice, it is important to put this subject matter into its proper perspectives, by examining where our topics fit into the wider and more general field of development planning. In this chapter, we address the relationship between economy-wide planning models and the whole of development planning from two perspectives. The first involves the conceptual view of models and the planning process, while the second focuses on past experiences and the types of countries for which these methodologies seem most appropriate. Section 2 begins with a discussion of various organization frameworks for planning which have been adopted in developing countries. The basic characteristics and uses of formal models are presented in section 3, with special emphasis on the role of economy-wide models. In section 4 we become more specific and address the relationship between the choice of models and particular economic problems and strategies.