Over the past 60 years, economic research has moved from the sidelines to the center of policymaking debates. Its influence pervades all aspects of human choice, whether it be the big issues such as international trade and poverty alleviation, to much smaller concerns such as the pricing of airline tickets.

In these and other areas economists have devoted enormous amounts of time and energy to developing models to help decisionmakers value actions and potential outcomes.They have also valued work carried out in other disciplines. It is thus rather surprising that economists have paid little or no attention to valuing their own work.

In What's Economics Worth? Valuing Policy Research, several leading economists, including Arnold Harberger, Anne Krueger, and Paul Krugman, seek to address this omission in mostly new articles that provide insights into the general nature of the benefits of economic research, potential methodologies for estimating its value--and sometimes the damage it causes when misapplied--as well as case studies that highlight the complexities of the issue.

The editors of the book, Philip G. Pardey and Vincent H. Smith, also note that in a time of limited research resources the ability to demonstrate the worth of any research discipline to administrators is a prerequisite for obtaining funding and making an impact on policy matters. More importantly, they point out that the policy value of the work of economists behooves developing-country governments to bolster their capacity for economic research.