On the role of computation in economic theory

This essay is concerned with computation as a tool for the analysis of mathematical models in economics, It is our contention that the use of high-performance computers is likely to play the substantial role in providing understanding of economic models that it does with regard to models in the physical and biological sciences. The main thrust of our commentary is that numerical simulations of mathematical models are in certain respects like experiments performed in a laboratory, and that this view imposes conditions on the way they are carried out and reported. (C) 1997 Academic Press.