Projects
In this section we provide an overview of the major international
projects undertaken by MMC since 1994. Please select a country in
the list below to read more about the project in that country:
Indonesia
In May 2000 MMC won an international World Bank tender for a project
for technical assistance to Ministry of Finance of Indonesia in
building a macro-economic and fiscal model and the training of
Indonesian economists. In a period of one year the Macroabc model for
Indonesia, called MODFI, has been constructed. MODFI is an advanced
macro model, still it runs in Excel. This was done by a team of four
part-time MMC consultants who came to Jakarta successively, three
full-time local consultants, four economists of MoF Indonesia that
co-operated intensively and many others that joined workshops.
Furthermore twelve MMC consultants gave workshops during three two-week
visits of four Indonesian economists to MMC's office in The Hague.
Furthermore co-operation happened through an intensive using of
telework. MMC used 367 working days of consultants from Europe and 480
of local consultants.
The fiscal and macro economic model MODFI is operational since May 2001
and has since then been used in the budget cycle, for calculation of
the economic effects of decrease in world trade (11/9/2001), the
production of policy variants for the coordination team, for monitoring
of the fiscal and economic development, and in the preparation of
meetings with the World Bank and the IMF. As a consequence of the
successful completion of the project MoF Indonesia started a new
department: “the Centre for Macro Economic Analysis”, with
45 employees including 14 economists. The Indonesian task manager of
the MODFI project became the director of the Centre and two of the
Indonesian counterparts in the MODFI project became head of a division
(the Centre consists of three divisions: real sector, balance of
payments and the monetary sector).
In October 2001 a two and a half-year follow up project started. The
goal of this project is to increase the sustainability of the model.
The main task of MMC in this follow-up project is to train also eleven
new economists, who had not been involved in the MODFI project before.
In 2004 MMC has been invited to support the Ministry of Finance of
Indonesia gain in 2004 and 2005, to give advanced training, to support
the construction of several supplementary modules, to build a
‘’university version’’ that will be as
shareware on the Internet, again using the telework approach:
* In total eight MMC consultant’s visits to Indonesia of ten calendar days
* Three three-week visit of four economists of MoF Indonesia to MMC in The Hague
* Cooperation by telework in between
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Ethiopia
Begin 2003 MMC was invited by Economic Planning and Policy Department
(EPPD) of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of Ethiopia
(MOFED) to construct a Macroabc model, again using the mixture of
training visits of MMC consultants on the spot, training visits of
Ethiopian experts to the Netherlands and telework in between. Also in
this project the training on the job included the construction of the
Macroabc model in intensive cooperation between MMC consultants and
local experts. Furthermore the Ethiopian Macroabc model project did
profit of the results of the earlier Macroabc project in Kenya: in the
starting stage the involved Ethiopian experts did join a training visit
to Kenya and one of the Kenyan experts was invited to work as short
term MMC consultant in Addis Ababa to train EPPD staff in the Kenyan
Macroabc model (KTMM).
The Ethiopian Macroabc model (called EPPD-MOFED model, abbreviated EMM)
was operational within one year. Then, in March 2004 the EPPD model
team was expanded and a second project started in which MMC was invited
to train new staff. This was done by a re-building exercise of the
consistency framework with the new staff. Additional training is going
on and furthermore we discuss additional support (training and support
in construction of supplementary modules) for next three years.
>> Click here to read more about EPPD-MOFED Macro Model Ethiopia (EMM)
>> Click here for a slideshow about the EMM.
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Kenya
Working together with the ISS, MMC has won an international tender for
an EU financed technical assistance project in the construction and use
of a macro model (MMC) and a sector model (ISS) for Kenya during
2000-2002. The beneficiary is the Kenyan Institute for Public Policy
Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) that works for the Ministry of Finance
of Kenya. In this project the combination of MMC’s Macroabc
methodology and its telework approach has also been used successfully.
The project started in January 2000 and in co-operation with Kenyan
counterparts a Kenyan Macroabc model, called KTMM has been constructed
which already became operational in August 2000. During the first year
four ten day visits of MMC consultants to Kenya took place and a two
week visit of four Kenyan economists to MMC’s office in The
Hague. During this visit twelve specialists were involved in the
project, without expensive traveling costs. A very important part of
the work has been done by telework. After the realization of that
milestone MMC remained stand-by via telework, and short visits of MMC
consultants to Kenya and Kenyan economists to MMC to support the use of
the model till the end of 2002 and a second project is in discussion
now. The model already has been used in preparations of the Budget,
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Long Term Development Plan,
discussions with IMF and the idea is to use it further as an auxiliary
to write policy simulation papers.
In 2004 KIPPRA has invited MMC to give another three years support,
again using the telework formula, to train new staff and to provide
ideas to improve the model (to new SNA etc.) and expand it with
supplementary modules. In March 2004 and in June 2004 a group of
twenty young professionals in KIPPRA (including the macro model team)
has been trained in the KTMM, especially by an exercise to rebuild the
consistency framework from scratch. Furthermore they can study the
special training modules that were made by MMC to KTMM.
>> Click here for an introduction to KTMM
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Curaçao
In 1995 and 1996 MMC consultants carried out a macro model building
project for the Netherlands Antilles and Curaçao. In the first
stage, MMC presented the prototype model Macroabc in a series of
large-scale workshops, in which representatives of the main
governmental and non-governmental organizations participated. Then,
together with local counterparts, MMC built a new macro-economic model
in six steps of four months each. An initial test version was built by
MMC and presented in a workshop on Curaçao, in which fourteen
economists of several organizations participated. After some
discussions, a program for improvement of the model was agreed on and
carried out by the local counterparts, with MMC giving advice and
support from the Netherlands through 'telework'. The next step started
with a new workshop, followed by new improvements, etc. At this time
the model, called Curalyse, is running in Excel and in use for
simulating the effects of introducing a sales tax and for the analysis
of the economic results of an IMF structural adjustment package. The
model is further used for the preparation of the yearly Economic
Outlook. After the successful completion of the model building project,
MMC was invited to give advanced training and expand the model with
several modules during 1997 and 1998. After that year Economic Affairs
of Curaçao gave MMC every year a project to give additional
training and maintenance of the model (financed from the regular budget
of Economic Affairs. And in 2003 MMC has been invited to continue to do
that till 2006, again using the telework formula: each year a visit of
MMC to Curaçao, a visit of two economists of Economic Affairs to
MMC in the Netherlands, and in between support by email. During
1995-2003 19 Curalyse workshops have been organized, with so far
533 participants, of which 210 persons. Therefore the model is also an
instrument for structuring the communication between the different
institutions and thus functions as a 'discussion calculation scheme'.
During 2002 special attention has been given to the expansion of the
model with an improved Micromacrosim module, called Antiltax. In that
year the Statistical Office started to produce exactly the input file
of the model. The whole model file of Curalyse can be downloaded from www.Curacao-gov.an (click after ‘’zaken en investeringen/ Curalyse) or www.micromacroconsultants.com. It is in Papiamentu, Dutch and English, and includes a manual.
Another project in 2000 was assigned to MMC by the Island Bonaire with
the goal to further develop the Bonalyse macro monitoring model
(including tourism export sector) and train staff during the next years.
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Baseline study Economic Development Netherlands Antilles
In October 2003 MMC did win a tender of the Ministry of Economic
Affairs of Netherlands Antilles to give support to the local
governments of the Netherlands Antilles (consisting of 5 islands) in
producing Baseline studies Sustainable Economic Development. This study
has been successfully executed during October 2003 till February 2004
and was financed by The Netherlands. For each of the islands a Macroabc
model was made, and the sum plus the monetary sector gives the
Antillyse model. In cooperation with experts on each island a judgment
of the preliminary development projects was made, their probable effect
on private investments, and the combined effect on numbers of tourists
(main export product). Then the results of the first step were
used as input in the Antillyse model and the Antiltax (the poverty
module to Antillyse), resulting in the output: additional number of
employees and additional number of persons above the poverty
line. Then the preliminary results have been discussed with the
local governments, resulting in targets. In the near future the
development cooperation will be output oriented and the local
government can decide themselves in which projects they will spend the
money, and they will be judged on the realization of the agreed and
quantified targets.
>> Click here to read more about the baseline study
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Macedonia
In 2003 MMC did win a tender, organized by World Learning, to organize
a training visit of 12 Macedonian economists mainly from Ministry of
Finance (also National Bank and Centre of Economic Analysis) during two
weeks at MMC’s office in the Netherlands. As a preparation MMC
made a test version of a Macroabc model for Macedonia. The mixture of
workshops with every morning another MMC specialist (actually
distinguished experts in daily life working for several institutes like
Ministry of Finance, Planning Office Statistical Office, Central Bank)
and intensive practical training with PC in the afternoon, appeared
very successful and pleasant. This very intensive program was feasible
thanks to a break with a walk to the beach (15 minutes from MMC’s
office) and a lunch discussion meeting at the beach. Thanks to
the mixture of intensive morning sessions by so many specialists and
afternoon training with a Macroabc model bridging between Macedonian
data and a Macroabc model as in use in the Netherlands in budget
preparation and medium term fiscal and economic analysis, the
Macedonian did get in only two weeks an idea how to profit of the Dutch
practice. (The Netherlands did start already in 1947 with macro model
use in CPB, with the first Nobel price winner Dr. Tinbergen as its
first director). See the proceedings paper and the Macroabc
Macedonia as shareware on micromacroconsultants.com
In 2004 did MMC did win such a tender to organize such a visit for a
group from Croatia, now lees concentrating on modeling and more on
budget preparation.
>> Click here to read more about Macroabc-MK
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Poland
MMC has won an international tender for the upgrading of an already
existing macro-economic model of the Department of Financial Policy and
Analysis of the Polish Ministry of Finance. The old model was fully
recursive, and the goal of the project was to upgrade it so that it
would contain a full set of simultaneous equations and be based on the
new Polish National Accounts (SNA'93). The project, 'Upgrade Polish
Macro'97 Model', was sponsored by the European Union.
Again, MMC started with the basic Dutch prototype model Macroabc.
During 1996, a team of MMC consultants visited Warsaw three times. Each
visit lasted one or two weeks. In addition to those visits there were
three visits of two to four Polish economists to MMC in The Hague. In
between the visits the Polish counterparts improved the model and sent
it by e‑mail to MMC for comments about the results and suggestions on
the possible proceedings.
The model is based on Polish data and runs in Excel. In addition to a
full set of behavioral equations, it contains several large blocks with
institutional equations. These institutional blocks were mostly written
by and geared towards the specific needs of the Polish counterparts.
The reference manual and self‑explaining slide show of the model
Makro'97 have been presented in a workshop in Warsaw.
In 1997, MMC carried out a follow‑up project to further upgrade of the
expertise of the staff of the Ministry of Finance to adapt the model so
that it would also be suitable for simulations over a longer horizon.
This project was financed by the European Union as well. It was
successfully completed in November 1997. The Polish Macroabc is still
in use (2002) at MoF Poland.
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Bank Indonesia
On invitation of the Central Bank of Indonesia two consultants of MMC
visited Indonesia in April 1999 to start the revitalization of the
macro economic model of Bank Indonesia and adjust it to the recent
economic developments. In the autumn of 2000 MMC carried out a World
Bank financed project to analyze the feasibility of a sustainable
quarterly model for Bank Indonesia.
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Suriname
The first international project was in Suriname. It was built on and
extended previous work Dr. van Schaaijk had done while still employed
by the CPB. In 1991 and 1992 he organized six one‑week workshops in
Surinam for a group of fifteen economists of the Surinam Planning
Office, the Central Bank, the Statistical Office and several
ministries. In between the workshops, he was also available for advice
by fax and e-mail from the Netherlands. This TA project resulted in a
new model, which has been used to help design measures to adjust the
economy. The participants were also trained in adjusting the model and,
as a result, acquired a high degree of control over the model. For
instance, in 1993, they used the model to make the calculations for the
Multi-Year- Development-Program 94‑98. In 1994, nine of the former
participants used the model to construct six long-term scenarios,
published as 'Surinam's economy in 2010'. Thanks to the modeling
approach, more economic analysis entered into the political discussion,
which contributed to the implementation of a monetary stabilization
program in 1994. As a result, the inflation rate has dropped from 586%
in 1994 to basically 0% in 1995 and 1996 after May 1995. During 1997
and 1998 MMC sponsored activities to construct a data model (TurboABS)
and in 2001 the renewal of the Macroabc models of Surinamese Planning
Office (Suryamodel) and Central Bank (CBMOD). In august 2004 the staff
of Central Bank Suriname will be trained in quarterly macro analysis.
Actually the activities in Suriname have been pro Deo all the time. See
also www.stuseco.org
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Activities in the Netherlands
- MMC won a tender of the Ministry of Housing
of the Netherlands for a research project on the possible effects of
liberalizing the housing market in the Netherlands. In 1995 and 1996 a
team of four MMC consultants did the research, which consisted of three
components: a survey-study of the international literature, an
empirical analysis based on a micro‑database of 24,000 households, and
simulations with a housing micro-simulation model developed by MMC,
called Microstad. The project was successfully completed, and the
junior consultant on the project won the Integrand/Shell price 1995 for
the best and most creative assignment via Integrand in 1995.
- In 1995, MMC did a small study for the
Research Institute for Environmental Studies about the relationship
between economic growth and steel consumption.
- In 1996, MMC won a tender of the Ministry of
Health to improve the method of forecasting the effects of a reduction
in the number of hours in the standard working week.
- In 1997 MMC won a tender of the Ministry of
Housing for a research project on the influence of the sales tax on
houses on housing choice and labor mobility. A team of four consultants
executed this project.
- Also in 1997, MMC won a tender of the Ministries
of Economic Affairs and Finance. A team of five consultants analyzed
the functioning of the housing market, again using the micro-simulation
model Microstad. After the successful completion of this project, MMC
made also an analysis of 36 regions.
- In 1998, MMC won a tender of the Ministry of
Health to make a study on the forecasting of the wage drift in the
health services. In 1998 MMC further did statistical research for the
National Investment Bank of the Netherlands.
- In 1998, MMC carried out the research for the
items 'macro' in the bimonthly journal Management Team. This research
is based on the use of the macroeconomic model Macroabc.
- In 1998 and 1999 MMC has constructed Euralyse, a macroeconomic model
for the 15 EU member states. This activity was sponsored by Syntens, an
innovation center financed by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the
Netherlands. Information about this model is also available on the
website of MMC.
- In 1999, MMC won a tender of the Ministry of
Internal Affairs to develop a methodology to analyze components of wage
development and quantification on micro data. After the successful
completion of this project the Ministry of Internal Affairs gave two
assignments for related projects.
- In 2000, MMC won an ICT tender of the Ministry of
Education to develop a wage simulation program to calculate the effects
of changes in salaries, taxes and social premiums on the wage bill for
the several parts of the education sector
- In 2001 MMC did research for the Ministry of
Internal Affairs to quantify the differences in individual wage
developments between the government and the market sector, based on
analysis of micro data.
- In the fall of 2001 MMC was invited by the
Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands to advice on the construction of
the New Tax Model.
- In 2002 MMC won a tender of four organisations in
the Health sector to analyse wage developments in this sector
- In 2003/2004 MMC has upgraded the wage simulation program of the Ministry of Finance.
- In 2005 MMC updated the wage simulation program for the Ministry of Education.
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Summary overview Macroabc model
for more information see ‘’Macroabc and Micromacrosim” on www.micromacroconsultants.com
Let a macro-economic model work for you: MMC has as shareware on the
Internet the Dutch version of its Macroabc model. This is a practical
macro-economic model of the Netherlands based on the main equations of
the large macro-economic models of the Dutch Central Planning Bureau.
MacroabcNL may be used for analysis, historical simulations, policy
simulations, forecasting and monitoring of the economy. The model on
the Internet is in Dutch.
Furthermore MMC made 'Euralyse', a model of the EU economy, with manual
in English. Models based on MMC's Macroabc methodology are now
available for The Netherlands, EU 15, Curaçao, Suriname, Poland,
Bonaire, Kenya and Indonesia. The Macroabc model for Curaçao,
called Curalyse, is also available on this homepage. It is in Dutch as
well as English as Papiamento. A part of the Euralyse model (sum of 15
European countries) is also available on this homepage, but not the
whole Euralyse model.
Micro effort with macro result: The Macroabc models are kept as simple
as possible in order to make them easy to handle. To reach this result
only the relevant relationships are included.
Measurable results: You can download the Dutch Macroabc model or the
Curalyse model together with the documentation. With these instruments
you can learn to run the model by yourself. Requirements: To run
Macroabc successfully, the only prerequisites are a reasonable
knowledge of economics and some experience using spreadsheets on a
personal computer.
The reference manual shows the way: The downloadable reference manual
explains the equations that make up the model, illustrates how to use
the model, and even shows you how to adjust the model. Topics of the
manual include: the model as a game; an interactive demo; working with
the model Macroabc; behavioural relations; re‑estimation; discrepancy
between model and reality; adjusting the model and the model as an
instrument for monitoring, simulation, analysis, forecasting and
scenarios.
Macroabc is shareware, not freeware. You can download it from our
homepage and use it for three months for evaluation purposes. After
that you will need a license for further use.
for more information see ‘’Macroabc and Micromacrosim” on www.micromacroconsultants.com
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