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This paper examines the issue of modelling languages as software tools for the construction and analysis of economic models. Modelling languages are intermediate level software tools that fit between the conventional commercial programming languages (such as C++ and Java) and the higher level applications packages (such as specific econometric packages). They try to blend the advantages of both the higher level and lower level tools. This paper examines these languages for use in the construction of economic models. Specifically, it examines the issue of whether such a language is the appropriate software tool for an economic modeller. It uses the modelling language MATLAB together with a number of illustrative examples to examine the use of these software tools with dynamic economic models. Keywords: Programming languages, visual simulation, model construction

The magnitudes of errors that come about as a result of using a linear approximation to a well-known representative model are examined. This is done by employing a calibrated version of the Matsuyama model of a small open economy.

Byline: Bruce G. Lewis, Ric D. Herbert, William J. Chivers Emergency services call centres rely on rapid call processing time to provide assistance to the community. The role of the call centre is to gain sufficient and accurate information in a timely manner to pass to the despatch operators to facilitate such a response. This paper is one step in building an agent-based model of a multi-queue emergency services call centre to generate practices that lead to better customer service level performance at reduced costs through more efficient resource allocation. In this paper, the authors model the operation of a single queue call centre and examine the service level performance parameter. The authors' results show the sensitivity of service level as call and agent parameters are varied and that different methods of calculating the service level can lead to differing results.