Business people, financial policymakers and economics students can forecast the future at a new World Wide Web site developed by economics professor Ray C. Fair and inaugurated earlier this month. Called "FAIRMODEL," the site involves 131 interrelated equations that, taken together, approximate how the economy works. At the touch of a computer key, users can calculate the effects on the economy of variables like changing tax and interest rates.
FAIRMODEL is a new tool for the Web, allowing users to solve the model, examine their results and make changes, without ever downloading anything to a personal computer. All the number crunching is done by the Web server. When large-scale econometric models were first developed in the 1960s, they required mainframe computers. In 1983, Mr. Fair pioneered the use of models on personal computers. Now he is the first to create a way to do the entire process on the Web, demonstrating that the Internet can be used for large computational problems.
Any or all of the data can be downloaded, printed, saved and shared with other users. In addition, the site has a message center for comments about the model and the economy. The Web site, programmed by Professor Fair and 47 Jane Internet Studio, is at http://fairmodel.econ.yale.edu
FAIRMODEL is free to all users.