Incorporating complex data structures into a language for social science research

Abstract

This paper presents a set of augmentations to the language BEAST (Brookings Economics and Statistical Translator) as part of a continuing effort to define a language for a particular group of computer users, social scientists. In this nebulous group we include professional economists, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and a large number of university students in those disciplines. An important assumption underlying our work has been that the cost of not having substantially better software than presently exists is very large and should be measured in terms of researchers' time. The true cost of inappropriate methods of computer utilization should not be measured by staff and computer costs, but by the social cost of the output foregone. When answers to questions of importance for national public policy formation require weeks, months, or even years to obtain, the cost becomes a social cost that we all eventually bear.