The Microeconomics of Complex Economies

Wolfram Elsner is professor of economics with the Institute for Institutional and Innovation Economics at the University Bremen in Germany. Before working in academia, he spent ten years as a local development official and state-level planner. He has published widely in various journals, has edited several books, and authored three textbooks. He is the managing editor of the Forum for Social Economics and has served as the President of the European Association for Evolutional Political Economy.

"...a rare tentative to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools...a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own." --Mind and Society"...a rare tentative to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools...a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own."--Mind and Society"The Microeconomics of Complex Economies by Wolfram Elsner, Torsten Heinrich and Henning Schwardt is a very well edited, versatile and powerful textbook. It delivers what it ambitiously promises: a pluralist introduction into microeconomics with a focus on social complexity. It can be used in any microeconomic course but it may be analytically too advanced to become a standard textbook. It provides plentiful of exercises for lecturers and students as well as helpful boxes illustrating topical real-world problems. EHS have delivered a grand and unique microeconomic pluralist textbook that deserves highest attention in the economic community." --Economic Methodology"This book is a rare attempt to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools. Yet, the Neoclassical analysis cannot be rejected at this stage (at least because of its diffusion among scholars), and it is not rejected in this book, but it is just a part of the picture. The book is a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own." --Mind and Society"These chapters will be very useful in showing students the applicability of economic theory to real-world experiences. Thus, the book has a good balance of theoretical analysis and discussions of economic phenomena of everyday life that should provoke students’ interest in economics…. overall, the authors have contributed greatly to bringing heterodox teaching into microeconomics." --Journal of Economic Issues"[The book] is undoubtedly useful as a manual as it comprises a powerful lot of knowledge and addresses issues that are currently subjects of ongoing research. Therefore, anyone taking the book in their hand will definitely receive a smart picture about where economics comes from, how far it has gotten, what are its current major modelling trends, and what its certain branches are dealing with and how….[We recommend it to students] in doctoral schools and active researchers – wholeheartedly." --Economic Review"Elsner, Schwardt and Heinrich define the very starting point of microeconomics as the investigation of agents’ coordination and conflict under conditions of interdependence and uncertainty. As such, the book provides a long overdue and immensely rich complement to the standard curriculum." --Rudiger von Arnim, University of Utah "Neoclassical economics created a utopian economy, which is far from the industrial reality. Wolfram Elsner, Torsten Heinrich, and Henning Schwardt’s new textbook, The Microeconomics of Complex Economies, provides a better framework for understanding contemporary issues such as information, innovation, network, hierarchy, and varieties of capitalism from a new perspective of complexity and evolution. Economic students and policy makers can gain a lot of insight from this timely textbook after having experienced the 2008 Financial Crisis." --Ping Chen, Peking University and Fudan University

• Part I: Basics of the Interdependent Economy and Its Processes1. Introduction to the Microeconomics of Complex Economies2. Tools I: An Introduction to Game Theory3. Problem Structures and Processes in Complex Economies 4. Approaching Real-World Interdependence and Complexity: Empirical Phenomena in the Global Economy Part II: Markets: General-Equilibrium Theory and Real-World Market Structures 5. The Ideal Neoclassical Market and General Equilibrium6. Critiques of the Neoclassical “Perfect Market” Economy and Alternative Price Theories7. Real-World Markets: Hierarchy, Size, Power, and Oligopoly, Direct Interdependence and Instability Part III: Further Tools and the Analysis of Complex Economies 8. Tools II: More Formal Concepts of Game Theory and Evolutionary Game Theory9. Tools III: An Introduction to Simulation and Agent-Based Modeling10. A Universe of Economies: Interdependence and Complexity, System Trajectories, Chaos, and Self-Organization11. Dynamics, Complexity, Evolution, and Emergence—The Roles of Game Theory and Simulation MethodsPart IV: History of Thought and Contemporary Models in Complexity Economics12. Themes of Complexity in the History of Economic Thought: Glimpses at A. Smith, T.B. Veblen, J.A. Schumpeter, and Others 13. Recent Core Models of Complexity Microeconomics14. The Size Dimension of Complex Economies—Towards a Meso-Economics: The Size of Interaction Arenas and the Emergence of Meso-Platforms of Institutional Coordination Part V: Further Applications: Information, Innovation, Policy, and Methodology15. The Information Economy and the Open-Source Principle16. Networks and Innovation—The Networked Firm, Innovation Systems, and Varieties of Capitalism 17. Policy Implications: New Policy Perspectives for Private Agents, Networks, Network Consultants, and Public Policy Agencies18. How to Deal with Knowledge of Complexity Microeconomics: Theories, Empirics, Applications, and Actions