Complexity and the Economy

The one word I can give about this book and complexity science in general is revolutionary.Complex Systems and Complexity Sciences allows one to see the fields above fields. When learning about it, you learn how to think about all fields in general.Complexity and the Economy is a keen introduction to how the complexity sciences applies to economics, and there's a vast array of examples inside of this book that will leave you a note refined thinker.

Now , i see this book has some positive reviews, but its time for reality check.I have been reading a lot on the subject of Complexity in Economics , Sociology and others.When i first read that book, there were some at first glance "interesting" topics, some of the chapters were amusing and entertaining.But after i closed the last page of the book, and i was thinking what did i actually learn - i felt the emptiness.Then i read quite a bit of other books on Sociology and Economy, and then i opened the Brian Arthur book for second time.Then i realized how shallow the "ideas" of this Author and how greatly overrated he is.First example - he explains how the Steam Engine initially had simpler design and how it had to evolve to more complex system in order to fullfil increasing customer and market demands ??!! It's obvious , it's common sense its waste of the reader's time.In the Second till Fourth Chapter he throws some equation without any explanation for the symbols or the logic behind them for people without background in statistics, also i do think most of his mathematical models are fundamentally flawed at inception.His theory for the adopting of the technologies may have been "the thing" in 1985, now its helplessly trivial ,obvious and obsolete.I watched some of his interviews on Youtube, very very tedious.This guy seems to simply observe trivial processes, then clothes that observation in some unclear and abstract way,without any added value, which makes the reader wondering whats exactly the end purpose of his writings.In my opinion the works of Loet Leydesdorff and Nicholas Rescher are in another universe and i highly recommend them for introduction in the subject

This, along with Alan Kirman's Complex Economics, is a great introduction to thinking about the economy as a non-equilibrium complex system. In addition, Arthur provides occasional interesting discussion of the early days of economic complexity thinking at the Santa Fe Institute. Arthur is a careful and thoughtful presenter of challenging ideas, making them feel 'intuitive'.

This is a complex exposition of a new economic paradigm that could be improved and simplified by incorporating information theory.

Great insights and background on how economics is evolving away from false assumptions that we all act rationally.

Brian Arthur is the best. His insight is fantastic

The topic is very interesting, and I would recommend students of economics to at least be familiar with the frameworks that the book offers. The book, aside from the occasional mention of mathematical models, is an easy read for anyone who has had some basic knowledge of economics. That said, it appears to me that the arguments presented by the authors are too introductory, and many chapters, which are supposed to be independent essays, do not have a proper conclusion. I can only give it the benefit of the doubt that this school of thought is nascent and has the potential to mature.

This collection of papers was one I expected to be a bit dry and overly academic, but I was surprised by how interesting it was to read.As Brian Arthur is one of the pioneers of applying complexity theories and "non-equilibrium" to the economy, getting to see his work progress and deepen in the series of papers that stretch over more than a twenty year period is fascinating.The time has definitely come for these ideas, and I believe this book is an excellent way to understand an admittedly complicated topic.I definitely recommend it!

I expected much more from this book. It repeats the same concepts - which are correct and reasonable - over and over again.It does reveal the absurdity of many neoclassical economics assumptions and is, for this reason, commendable.To my surprise however, yet as the author himself stresses more than once, the ideas are quite old (e.g. Schumpeter and others).Although the computational applications are necessarily new, nothing really revolutionary to economics students with some background in the history of economic thought.Well suited to the interested layman.