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This book provides an overview of recent developments of complexity theory within the realm of social sciences. At a time when global and local social, political, cultural, and economic affairs are engulfed in chaos, this book sheds light on the mechanisms of uncertainties, offering new visions and frameworks for analyzing the nonlinear interactions between individuals, societies, and the environment.From exploring the foundational elements that shape our understanding of humanity, such as worldviews, justice, and trust, to applying complexity theory in the realms of politics, economics, management, strategies, and wars, this monograph provides a comprehensive examination of its far-reaching implications. By examining historical bifurcations and structural changes in American history and China's modern development, it emphasizes how complexity theory can serve as a bridge for intellectual and cultural communication between Western (Newtonian) and East Asian (yin-yang-based) civilizations.Moreover, the book elucidates that nonlinear phenomena, including bifurcations, catastrophes, structural changes, emergence of structures, and chaos, are integral aspects of human evolution. It unveils the positive potential within chaos, demonstrating that a comprehensive understanding of catastrophic mechanisms enables humanity to prevent global disasters by leading systems to chaotic attractors without destructive consequences. Through an exploration of the intricate interdependencies among individuals, societies, and the environment, this book offers a unique and comprehensive introduction to the application of complexity theory to the realm of humanity.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and unique introduction to modern microeconomics. It adopts an integrative approach, positioning the main findings of economics in a broader context. It critically reflects on theories from a philosophical standpoint and compares them to approaches found in the social sciences, while at the same time highlighting the implications for the design of legal systems and business practices.Intended for undergraduate students, the book presents brief examples and comprehensive case studies to help them grasp the real-world implications of the theories. As such, it is suitable for an applied, yet technically precise approach to teaching microeconomics, as well as for a critical review of the economic mainstream. Starting from the question as to why and how societies organize economic activity, it analyzes the potential and limitations of various types of market with regard to alleviating scarcity and achieving distributive objectives, from an institutional perspective.This second edition systematically expands on decision theory by including chapters on traditional decision theory under risk and uncertainty, and on behavioral economics, as well as a chapter presenting findings from the neurosciences, evolutionary psychology, and narrative psychology. Furthermore, there are theoretical additions, along with updated case studies and examples – from trade wars to pandemics and the climate crisis.A new edition of the companion workbook features a wealth of exercises, ranging from basic multiple-choice questions to challenging mathematical problems and case studies, is also available.

‘This is the second book of a two-volume set that continues Adam Smith's work, using the tools mathematical, experimental, and behavioural economists have developed since 1776. As in the first volume, markets are not the central organising principle. Instead, attention centres on social institutions and the division of labour that they enable. The book studies this via the endogenous division of labour that existing institutions help form. The first book in the series examined this problem deeply, resorting minimally to formal mathematical modelling; the second volume is where the formal modelling blossoms. General equilibrium theory meets network theory and receives a breath of fresh air, including a new viewpoint on economic inequality, the newly resurgent bane of capitalism. What I said for the first volume applies to this second volume equally: if you care to understand the economy, this book belongs to your bookshelf.'—Dimitrios Diamantaras, Temple University,Philadelphia, USAThis textbook introduces and develops new tools to understand the recent economic crisis and how desirable economic policies can be adopted. Gilles provides new institutional concepts for wealth creation, such as network economies, which are based on the social division of labour.This second volume introduces mathematical theories of the endogenous formation of social divisions of labour through which economic wealth is created. Gilles also investigates the causes of inequality in the social division of labour under imperfectly competitive conditions. These theories frame a comprehensive, innovative and consistent perspective on the functioning of the twenty-first century global economy, explaining many of its failings. Suitable reading for advanced undergraduate, MSc and postgraduate students in microeconomic analysis, economic theory and political economy.

Luigi L. Pasinetti (born 1930) is arguably the most influential of the second generation of the Cambridge Keynesian School of Economics, both because of his achievements and his early involvement with the direct pupils of John Maynard Keynes. This comprehensive intellectual biography traces his research from his early groundbreaking contribution in the field of structural economic dynamics to the ‘Pasinetti Theorem'. With scientific outputs spanning more than six decades (1955–2017), Baranzini and Mirante analyse the impact of his research work and roles at Cambridge, the Catholic University of Milan and at the new University of Lugano. Pasinetti's whole scientific life has been driven by the desire to provide new frameworks to explain the mechanisms of modern economic systems, and this book assesses how far this has been achieved.

This textbook introduces and develops new tools to understand the recent economic crisis and how desirable economic policies can be adopted. Gilles provides new institutional concepts for wealth creation, such as network economies, which are based on the social division of labour. This volume investigates the formation of networks and hierarchical authority organisations, with a focus on the role of trust. Gilles also looks at the theory of growth and development, using real world examples and problem sets to put into practice. This title is suitable reading for undergraduate, MSc and postgraduate students in microeconomic analysis, economic theory and political economy.

This book discusses the economics of transport infrastructure and the economic theorizing around transport infrastructure from 1850 to today. Transport infrastructure systems are continuously evolving over time. Since the mid-1800s these systems have grown in complexity and outreach. They have been important drivers of economic development but have also been important as economic agents in themselves. Over time transport infrastructure systems have taken on different functions as providers of simpler transport services or more developed value chain components. Transport infrastructure has also been a source for different arguments about economic theory and practice. Transport infrastructure systems are analysed from an institutional perspective where the long-term development of the ownership and financing of the systems, as well as the connection to different policy areas are elaborated. A longitudinal study of Sweden's transport infrastructurepolicy is used to exemplify driving factors causing change and transformation of the systems over time with different scale and scope.

This book uses Figueroa's unified theory of capitalism to explain how economic growth has led to a new epoch, the Anthropocene, and it presents a new set of economic principles that are needed in this new age. The policies presented in the book are derived from an empirically corroborated scientific theory. Therefore, this book is unique in its discussion of public policy as the result of scientific knowledge, rather than based on ideology or private interests. In the new epoch we have entered, man is now the main factor in the fate of the Earth, and in social terms, the Anthropocene age also implies a period of high and persistent income inequality in the capitalist system, with the consequence of social disorder. Figueroa considers these conditions and addresses fundamental problems of our time, such as the ideal organization of production and distribution, and the functionality of a zero-growth society. Standard economics would approach these problems under the assumptionthat we still live in the Holocene age, but in this book, Figueroa both explains and develops new economic principles for this new context.

This book sheds new light on the relationship between economy and the environment by approaching the issue from evolutionary and institutional economics. Building a framework of theory and empirical analysis, it provides an in-depth perspective on how economic growth and environmental policy interact and historically evolve.Orthodox environmental economics usually understands environmental issues under the rules of market economy, while environmental sciences subordinate economy to physical constraints of the environment. Instead of these hierarchical visions, this book recognizes economy and the environment as co-evolving systems.The theoretical framework is elaborated based on the régulation and post-Keynesian theories combined. An idea of three-dimensional factors—capital, labor, and the environment—leads to conceptual and mathematical models, which will be applicable to wider analyses.Using this framework, Japanese history is analyzed as a typical example ofenvironmental policy development. Historical transformations of environmental policies and growth regimes are explained using indices and econometric analysis. Experiences of strict regulations with positive economic impacts are also identified. These works lead to some interesting implications, which include mechanisms, the possibility, and conditions of'green growth''. This book proposes a new approach by bridging the gap between evolutionary–institutional economics and environmental economics, which should be stimulating to them both and possibly open the door for a new research avenue.

This book aims to discern and distinguish the essential features of basic economic theories and compare them with new theories that have arisen in recent years. The book focuses on seminal economic ideas and theories developed mainly in the 1930s to 1950s because their emergence eventually led to new branches of economics. The book describes an alternative analytical framework spreading through the interdisciplinary fields of socioeconophysics and sociodynamics. The focus is on a set of branching or critical points that separate what has gone before from what has followed. W. Brian Arthur used the term “redomaining” when he referred to technological innovation. In the present volume the author aims to re domain economic theories suited for a new social order. Major technological innovations accompany not only changes in the economy and the market but changes in their meaning as well. In particular, the evolution of trading technology has changed the meaning of the “invisible hand.” At the end of the last century, the advent of socioeconophysics became a decisive factor in the emergence of a new economic science. This emergence has coincided with changes in the implications of the economy and the market, which consequently require a redomaining of economic science. In this new enterprise, the joint efforts of many scientists outside traditional economics have brought brilliant achievements such as power law distribution and network analysis, among others. However, the more diverse the backgrounds of economic scientists, the less integrated the common views among them may be, resulting in a sometimes perplexing potpourri of economic terminology. This book helps to mitigate those differences, shedding light on current alternative economic theories and how they have evolved.

The twelve papers in this collection grew out of the workshop on'Eco­ nomic Evolution, Learning, and Complexity'held at the University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany on May 23-25, 1997. The Augsburg workshop was the second of two events in the Euroconference Series on Evolutionary Economics, the first of which was held in Athens, Greece in September 1993. A special issue of the Journal of Evolutionary Econo­ mics (1993(4)) edited by Yannis Katsoulacos on'Evolutionary and Neo­ classical Perspectives on Market Structure and Economic Growth'con­ tains selected papers from the Athens conference. The Athens conference explored neoclassical and evolutionary perspectives on technological competition and increasing returns. It helped to identify the dis­ tinguishing features of evolutionary scholarship. The Augsburg workshop was more oriented toward exploring methodological issues in evolutiona­ of the papers employed new me­ ry and related scholarship. A number thods, such as genetic programming and experimental analysis, some developed new econometric techniques or raised new empirical issues in evolutionary economics, and some relied on simulation techniques. Twelve papers covering a range of areas were selected for this collection. The papers address central issues in evolutionary and Schumpeterian accounts of industrial competition, learning, and innovation.

Alfred Marshall has traditionally been listed alongside pioneering'neoclassical'economists. In this volume Neil Hart challenges this view, illuminating the ambiguities within Marshall's work, and exploring his reconciliation of two modes of thinking, equilibrium economics and evolutionary economics.

This book reconciles the existence of technical trading with the Efficient Market Hypothesis. By analyzing a well-known agent-based model, the Santa Fe Institute Artificial Stock Market (SFI-ASM), it finds that when selective forces are weak, financial evolution cannot guarantee that only the fittest trading rules will survive. Its main contribution lies in the application of standard results from population genetics which have widely been neglected in the agent-based community.

theory,whichformalizesa dynamiceconomicsystemasa systemofdi?erence, or di?erential, equations. There equilibria mean ‘equilibrium trajectories'of the whole evolution that, in a certain sense, are optimal. A particularly un- tisfactory feature of this conceptualization of an equilibrium, however, is the factthattheintertemporaloptimizingapproachcompletelypredeterminesthe whole future of the economic system. This “closed loop” approach gives rise to the common reproach that economic theory is predominantly concerned with the question of ‘how the economic system ought to behave'rather than with the question of ‘how does it behave actually'. This is the point at which the new branch of evolutionary economics has made its entrance. In contrast to growth or business cycle theory, evolutionary economics perceives the evolution of the economic system as essentially “open” to true novelties that are unforeseeable by their very nature. This view clearly makes obsolete any conception of equilibrium that resorts to the idea of a?nal state of rest, or to the idea of an intertemporally optimizing trajectory which is prespeci?ed ab initio by a system of di?erential equations and initial con- tions. To be sure, there have been attempts to reconceptualize the notion of equilibrium from the evolutionary viewpoint. However, these proposals also appear, in one way or another, to hinge on the ideas of rest. This parti- larly applies to the branch of nonlinear dynamics and deterministic chaotic motion.

Classical microeconomics is intended to explain how a price system is able to coordinate the economic agents. But even if it can be extended to incomplete information and externalities, it remains grounded on very heroic assumptions. Agents are endowed with a very strong rationality, equilibrium is stated without a concrete process to achieve it, market is the unique institution considered. Evolutionary microeconomics is aimed at bypassing these limitations by considering a dynamic approach, however not biologically oriented. Agents have local information and bounded rationality, they are involved in explicit processes of interactions through time, various institutions sustain the market or substitute to it. It explains then some phenomena hardly explained by classical microeconomics: dispersion of prices, variety of industrial structures, financial bubbles.