Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments and Comments
- 1 The Adaptive, Evolutionary Theory of Divergent Economic Growth
- PART ONE GLOBAL TRENDS AND ADAPTIVE ECONOMICS
- PART TWO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
- PART THREE EPOCHAL DEVELOPMENT
- PART FOUR TOWARD A GENERAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT
- 11 Economics Far from Equilibrium
- 12 The Dialectical Republic
- Index
11 - Economics Far from Equilibrium
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments and Comments
- 1 The Adaptive, Evolutionary Theory of Divergent Economic Growth
- PART ONE GLOBAL TRENDS AND ADAPTIVE ECONOMICS
- PART TWO TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
- PART THREE EPOCHAL DEVELOPMENT
- PART FOUR TOWARD A GENERAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT
- 11 Economics Far from Equilibrium
- 12 The Dialectical Republic
- Index
Summary
What drove these transformations from one level to the next remains largely unknown but at least we have achieved a non-contradictory description of nature rooted in dynamic instability.
Ilya Prigogine, The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos and the New Laws of NatureNature changes quite abruptly at any point when a quantitative modification leads to a sudden emergence of a new quality.
Konrad Lorenz, The Natural Science of the Human SpeciesSuch is the continuous market, which is perpetually tending towards equilibrium without ever attaining it…. like a lake, there are days when it is almost smooth… [and others] stirred to its very depths by a storm, so also the market is sometimes thrown into violent confusion by crises.
Léon Walras, Elements of Pure EconomicsDuring the last quarter of the twentieth century, great progress was made in explaining physical, biological, and human social processes that, in former times, were thought to be too complex to be explained in terms of mathematical models. This discussion is concerned with these developments in economics. As a prelude, the basic properties of complex dynamics that have so far been shown to have a significant bearing on economic processes are outlined. Then two applied studies are summarized: one representing macroeconomic development over many centuries, one representing microeconomic development within a decade or generation. These studies imply that economies evolve far from equilibrium.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Divergent Dynamics of Economic GrowthStudies in Adaptive Economizing, Technological Change, and Economic Development, pp. 203 - 220Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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