Logic Programming as a Paradigm for Financial Modeling: A Comment; Response

Minch (1989) argued that logic programming is substantially superior to existing financial modeling systems. In order to evaluate this claim, a survey was conducted of over 200 professional accounting offices in the UK, followed by a series of in-depth interviews with financial modelers in those firms. The results indicate that spreadsheets and modeling languages are seen as providing a very satisfactory service at a low cost in terms of both time and money. The benefits to be gained from an even more sophisticated approach are far outweighed by the enormous costs involved. In response to McLintock and Berry, Minch notes that other published and more completely described studies examining the actual hands-on use of similar advanced financial modeling functions found that those functions were not only used but were also perceived as valuable by users.