1250 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 26 
the relationships between economic development and population 
growth and empirical studies on the effectiveness of various 
measures for influencing population growth. They can also 
contribute by assisting in the improvement of vital statistics 
and other demographic data under the difficult conditions pre- 
valent in under-developed countries. 
Econometrics is a powerful tool of scientific analysis. It 
cannot in itself determine what economic policy should be, 
but it can work out in a rigorous way the consequences of 
specific hypotheses and observations. Thus it can help con- 
siderably in the successful functioning of an economic system 
by bringing about a better understanding of the system and 
an increase in the flow of information available to those who 
operate it. This is true whatever the political environment in 
which that system functions and whatever degree of develop- 
ment it has reached. Naturally, continued improvement de- 
pends on the general recognition of the new science by society 
at large and on the additional resources, both moral and 
material, that may be expected to accompany this recognition. 
ALLAIS, BOLDRINI, DORFMAN, FISHER, FRISCH, 
HAAVELMO, ISARD, JOHNSON, KoOPMANS, LEONTIEF, 
MAHALANOBIS, MALINVAUD, MORISHIMA, PASINETTI, 
SCHNEIDER, STONE, THEIL, WOLD.