A Comment on Blanning's “The Sources and Uses of Sensitivity Information”

Professor Blanning [Blanning, Robert. 1974. The sources and uses of sensitivity information. Interfaces4 (4, August) 32–38.] presents a set of interesting uses of sensitivity information and discusses a thought-provoking, nonconventional source of such information, the metamodel. The four conventional uses that Professor Blanning presents, however, ignore an important potential use of such information. One of the primary concerns of the practitioner building a model is the reliability of forecast estimation. Sensitivity analysis can be used by the practitioner as an important means in the reduction of forecast uncertainty and can aid management in utilizing information generated from an economic model.