A Message From The Editors

We are proud to publish the second issue of Economic Analysis and Policy (EAP) in 2008 as the new editors. While editorial messages are usually rare events, EAP is currently undergoing several changes and hopefully we hope that these changes will improve the quality of the journal. One of the changes we are introducing in this issue is a new section called the practitioners forum, edited by Prof. Stan Hurn of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Prof. Kenneth Lindsay of the University of Glasgow in the UK. The practitioners corner addresses issues in applying current econometric ideas to current topics of economic and social science research. The focus is on addressing difficulties in the use and implementation of new techniques. Furthermore, this section deals with certain paradoxes, which remain poorly explained or lack evidence in the real world. While this idea of introducing a practitioners corner is by no means new (cf. the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics) EAP hopes to contribute further to this tradition. We would very much like to encourage applied economists to share their expertise on problems and dilemmas of implementing current econometric methods with the readership of EAP. The first contribution is by Christensen, Hurn and Lindsay on ‘Practical Optimisation’.