Changing levels of self-organization: how a capitalist economy differs from other complex systems

Leonardo Ribeiro, Leonardo de Deus (), Pedro Loureiro and Eduardo Albuquerque
Additional contact information
Leonardo Ribeiro: Inmetro-RJ
Pedro Loureiro: SOAS-UK

No 581, Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG from Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Abstract: This paper investigates the specificity of a modern capitalist economy as a complex system. This investigation is based on a review of the literature to understand complexity in the physical and biological worlds, to learn the bases of complexity and self-organization, and to locate the tools used to identify and measure them. An economy has different layers and levels of organization, based upon human beings, agents that think, have intentions and change all the time. This paper presents a new model to replicate the workings of a capitalist economy that endogenizes the introduction of innovations and institutional change, and it runs a simulation. The analysis of those results indicate that a modern capitalist economy is a complex system, and that this complex system changes its level of self-organization over time. This finding highlights the peculiarity of a capitalist economy vis-à-vis other complex systems.

Keywords: rate of profit; technological revolutions; Marx; complex systems; metamorphoses of capitalism; simulation models. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 O33 P16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2018-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp and nep-hme
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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