Reducing the Communication Gap Between Economists and Policy Makers: A Set of Structural Policy Indicators

Economists have come to view indicators like the budget deficit and the inflation rate as necessary tools when discussing stabilization policy. In dealing with structural policy, however, indicators have a clearly less prominent role. The paper argues that constructing a standardized set of structural indicators for the Norwegian economy, based on economic theory, is likely to strengthen structural policy surveillance and improve the quality of public debate on efficiency and growth issues. A simple "Market Failure Approach" is presented to help identify interesting indicators.