1. The paper provides an excellent illustration of one of the uses of a macro-economic model, namely the analysis of the consequences of policy alternatives. Exercises like the one being presented here show clearly how important it is to consider also indirect effects of policy measures. One of the great merits of the use of a rather refined simulation model is precisely that such indirect effects, also those that appear with a certain delay, show up quite clearly in the results.

2. Comments on a paper reporting on simulation experiments usually fall in two categories. On the one hand one can discuss the experiment itself, the choice of alternatives, the presentation and interpretation of the results. On the other hand one can pay attention to the underlying assumptions, i.e. the simulation model, RENA in this case, itself. An interesting feature of simulation of alternatives is that it shows sometimes more clearly than a simple extrapolation how the model functions, a topic usually worthy of some comments.