Economists traditionally tackle normative problems by computing optimal policy, i.e. the one that maximizes a social welfare function. In practice, however, a succession of marginal changes to a limited number of policy instruments are implemented, until no further improvement is feasible. I...

Migration becomes a more and more significant process that triggers various types of complex behavior. After analyzing the process, especially with regard to the occurrence of nonlinear behavior, a model is build to include the features that may lead to the occurrence of cycles of migration...

Some economists (Mirowski, 2002) have asserted that the neoclassical economic model was motivated by Newtonian mechanics. This viewpoint encourages confusion. Theoretical mechanics is firmly grounded in reproducible empirical observations and experiments, and provides a very accurate description...

This paper focuses on induction, because the supposed weaknesses of that process are the main reason for favouring falsificationism, which plays an important part in scientific methodology generally; the paper is part of a wider study of economic methodology. The standard objections to, and...

Fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms are used to rework more realistic (and more complex) models of competitive markets. The resulting equilibria are significantly different from the ones predicted from the usual static analysis; the methodology solves the Walrasian problem of how markets can...

Information, communication and transport networks have always been in a state of flux, while they also influence each other. Extensive research efforts have been made to investigate the dynamics in the structure and use of networks, e.g., by means of network geometries, small-world effects and...

The impact of economic institutions on development is presently taken for granted but there is surprisingly scarce evidence on the channels through which institutions affect the organization of output. Imperfections in contractual enforcement, for example, could lead firms to adopt technologies...

Relationships between society and environment became an important subject for research in all domains of science. The emergency of problem solving and the incomplete knowledge of numerous elements, processes and interactions have created a number of problematic situations in managerial terms....

The literature on network effects has popularized a hypothesis that competition between incompatible technologies results in the "winner-take-all" outcome. For the survival of the firm in this sort of competition, the installed base has been emphasized. We argue that the validity of this...