MODEL EVALUATION AND CHOICE

The paper begins with a reexamination of the goals of model evaluation , and choice. Desirable properties for an empirical model are stated a s situational, a priori, observational and specification consistency p rinciples. If these consistency principles are accepted as a basis for model evaluation, then one obvious approach to model choice is to con sider the relative goodness of the candidate models in terms of each o f the four consistency principles. Specific examples from our own empi rical research are used to illustrate the advantages of the suggested multidimensional approach to model evaluation and choice.