This chapter delineates an evolutionary approach to the comparative analysis of economic systems and illustrates its usefulness via an exemplary application to recent developments in the European Union. The first part of the chapter describes the meta-theoretical foundations of the approach,...

What determines the realisticness of a model? It is argued that to come up with an account of model realisticness that can answer this question, one has to make strong philosophical commitments to an account of representation, an account of model-world comparisons as well as the ontology of...

Agent-based simulations have become increasingly prominent in various disciplines. This trend is to be appreciated, but it comes with challenges: while there are more and more standards for design, verification, validation, and presentation of the models, the various meta-theoretical strategies...

From the two premises that (1) economies are complex systems and (2) the accumulation of knowledge about reality is desirable, I derive the conclusion that pluralism with regard to economic research programs is a more viable position to hold than monism. To substantiate this claim an...

We use an agent-based stock-flow consistent model of a closed economy without technological change that considers different classes of households, status consumption and a Minskyan banking sector to analyze the relationship between rising saving rates, the accumulation and distribution of...

This paper studies the conceptualization and quantification of 'competitiveness' within the main policy coordination framework of the EU, the European Semester. This topic warrants attention since 'competitiveness' is not only of central importance in the European policy discourse, but also a...

Dieser Beitrag illustriert theoretische Argumente zu den Charakteristika vergangener und gegenwärtiger Globalisierungsprozesse am Beispiel des (ehemaligen) MAN-Produktionsstandortes Steyr. Dabei wird gezeigt, wie sich allgemeine Dynamiken verstärkter internationaler Eigentumskonzentration und...

This paper analyses the impact of technological capabilities on convergence. While looking at the relevance of differences in technological capabilities has a long tradition in economics when it comes to explaining persistent deviations in income, we provide econometric tests on the role of...

This paper introduces a framework to facilitate an interdisciplinary analysis of 'competition'. While such an interdisciplinary analysis can be justified by referencing the various fields of social and economic life in which 'competition' is important, three challenges are found to aggravate...

Competition is at the core of economics, being both a central concept of economic reasoning and a main prerequisite for economic action. Yet, the attempt of a clear definition of competition is challenging as the concept of competition has been used in different historical and disciplinary...