This paper aims to interpret and formalize Herbert Simon's notions of bounded rationality, satisficing and heuristics in terms of computability theory and computational complexity theory. Simon's theory of human problem solving is analysed in the light of Turing's work on Solvable and Unsolvable...

In this paper, in homage to Alan Turing’s birth centennial, I try to develop what may be called Turing’s Economics. I characterize the contents of such an ‘economics’ in terms of the conceptual and mathematical tools developed by Alan Turing. It is shown, in more and less detail, how...

Over the summer of 2003, the author undertook the refurbishment of the Cambridge Phillips Machine with help from technicians in the Cambridge University Engineering Dept and with advice from economists. The Machine now works and - moreover - is safe to work with. The Machine has since been used...

Can the same mathematical control laws that smooth out oscillations in the flight of an airplane also moderate economic cycles of boom and bust? Attempts to bring together the intellectual traditions of control engineering and economics go back at least as far as the hydraulic analog computer of...

In this paper we study technological progress in a set of representative Italian regions. The analysis is conducted using input-output data. We construct the technological frontiers and calculate new indices of technological progress (see Fredholm and Zambelli 2009 and Zambelli and Fredholm...

Real analysis, founded on the Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms, buttressed by the axiom of choice, is the dominant variety of mathematics utilized in the formalization of economic theory. The accident of history that led to this dominance is not inevitable, especially in an age when the digital computer...

Computation is making its way into the mainstream of natural and social science research by fits and starts. “Computational science,” once a toolkit, is emerging as a fundamentally new approach to exploration and hypothesis formation as well as analysis. It is not yet clear, however, just...