Frank Schweitzer (Ed.)
Modeling Complexity in Economic and
Social Systems
Singapore: World Scientific, 2002, 394 pp. (ISBN
981-238-034-5)
Economics and the social sciences are, in fact, the "hard" sciences,
as Herbert Simon argued, because the complexity of the problems dealt
with cannot simply be reduced to analytically solvable models or
decomposed into separate subprocesses. Nevertheless, in recent years,
the emerging interdisciplinary "sciences of complexity" have provided
new methods and tools for tackling these problems, ranging from
complex data analysis to sophisticated computer simulations. In
particular, advanced methods developed in the natural sciences have
recently also been applied to social and economic problems.
The twenty-one chapters of this book reflect this modern development
from various modeling perspectives (such as agent-based models,
evolutionary game theory, reinforcement learning and neural network
techniques, time series analysis, non- equilibrium macroscopic
dynamics) and for a broad range of socio-economic applications (market
dynamics, technological evolution, spatial dynamics and economic
growth, decision processes, and agent societies). They jointly
demonstrate a shift of perspective in economics and the social
sciences that is allowing a new outlook in this field to emerge.
Table of Contents (PDF file)
Introduction of the Editor (PDF file)
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Last Update: 28 November 2002