Bioeconomic and market models

The United States has a century of experience with the development of models that describe markets for forest products and trends in resource conditions. In the last four decades, increasing rigor in policy debates has stimulated the development of models to support policy analysis. Increasingly, research has evolved (often relying on computer-based models) to increase understanding of consumer demands, producer behavior, landowner behavior, and conditions of the timber resource. Greater computational power available since the mid 1970s has allowed the evolution of bioeconomic models that combine economic and resource models. These are used in the United States to provide the basis for forecasting future resource and market trends and to inform policy analysis. These more complex models have also extended options for policy analysis using approaches such as scenario planning to help decision makers gauge uncertainty.