A Macro Economy as an Emergent Ecology of Plans
44 Pages Posted: 4 Nov 2010 Last revised: 19 Sep 2011
Date Written: November 3, 2010
Abstract
Standard macro theories reflect a choice-theoretic orientation wherein aggregate variables are treated as acting directly on one another. Macro phenomena are thus reduced to the same order of simplicity as micro phenomena; macro variables differ from micro variables only by their larger size. In contrast, this paper treats the relationship between micro and macro as non-scalable. Macro phenomena emerge through micro interaction and are of a higher order of complexity than micro phenomena. Rather than reducing macro to micro through scalar multiplication, macro phenomena supervene on micro interaction and are not themselves objects of direct action. A macro economy is treated as a complex ecology of plans that constitute a non-equilibrium process of spontaneous ordering.
Keywords: micro foundations, complexity; emergence, supervention, ecology of plans, turbulence, spontaneous ordering, scale-free modeling
JEL Classification: B4, D2, D8, E1
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation