Complexity Economics at the Santa Fe Institute and at the University of Michigan

Roberto Marchionatti ()
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Roberto Marchionatti: University of Turin, Campus “Luigi Einaudi”, Department of Economics and Statistics

Chapter Chapter 5 in Economic Theory in the Twentieth Century, An Intellectual History—Volume IV, 2025, pp 167-194 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The chapter deals with the complexity approach to economics, which emerged in the 1980s through the work of a group of scientists at the Santa Fe Institute for the Study of Complex Systems and at the University of Michigan. Firstly, the chapter analyzes the research program in complexity economics developed at the Santa Fe Institute under the influence of Kenneth Arrow and the leadership of Brian Arthur. It advanced the view that the economy is a complex adaptive system, governed by the same dynamic principles that characterize other complex systems. In particular, Arthur’s work presents complexity economics as a general theoretical framework alternative to neoclassical economics. Then, the chapter analyzes the contributions of Robert Axelrod and other scientists at the University of Michigan, focusing on their studies on the complexity of cooperation, exploring how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoists.

Keywords: P. W. Anderson; K. Arrow; B. Arthur; Increasing Returns; Inductive Reasoning; The Economy as an Evolving Complex System; P. David; Path Dependence; Complexity and the Economy; Agent Based Models; R. Axelrod; BACH group; Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma; Cooperation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-032-06201-7_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-06201-7_5

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