Complexity and empirical economics

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Durlauf, SN
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2005.01003.x
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: F225-F243
• 关键词: Path dependence; lock-in; standardization; neighborhoods; networks; DYNAMICS; BEHAVIOR; MODEL

摘要

This article explores the state of interplay between recent efforts to introduce complex systems methods into economics and the understanding of empirical phenomena. The empirical side of economic complexity may be divided into three general branches: historical studies, the identification of power and scaling laws, and analyses of social interactions. I argue that, while providing useful 'stylised facts', none of these empirical approaches has produced compelling evidence that economic contexts exhibit the substantive microstructure or properties of complex systems. This failure reflects inadequate attention to identification problems. Identification analysis should therefore be at the centre of future work on the empirics of complexity.