Overview

A substantial portion of the policy model of IFs is scattered throughout the other models. There are "policy handles" or intervention points throughout those models. For instance, in the population model, multipliers on the total fertility rate can reflect policy decisions (although they can also reflect the model user's judgment concerning social changes in the country or region, independent of policy). Similarly, in the energy model, the multiplier on energy demand can represent conservation policy. Similarly, the ultimate energy resource base and the rate of resource discovery remain uncertain in part because they are subject to a wide range of government interventions - multipliers can introduce assumptions about such interventions. In the economic module, the level of trade protection is very clearly a policy parameter as is the multiplier on the tax rate. Patterns of regulation, subsidy, tax incidence, and provision of state services are so diffuse and complicated that we resort to looking at their aggregate consequences through various "policy handles" rather than trying to represent them explicitly.

IFs contains other categories of sociol-political activity, however, that it represents in more integrated fashion in the sociopolitical module as a four-dimensional social fabric: social characteristics/life condition, values, social structures (formal and informal), and social processes.

For help understanding the equations see Notation.

• Life Conditions
• Income Distribution
• Networking
• Values
• Structures or Institutions
• Stability/State Failure
• Economic Inequality and Political Conflict
• Government Expenditures
• Foreign Aid