Introduction to the Microeconomics of Complex Economies

Elsner, Wolfram; Heinrich, Torsten; Schwardt, Henning

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-411585-9.00001-4

Cited by 29 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…If all of the rhino horns supplied from poached rhinos were sold at the prices given, and there was no customer recruitment through time, then the market demand curve based on this data would be strongly upward sloping. This is an example of the market demand curve not being a scaled version of an individual’s demand curve [48–49]. Because Q t monotonically increases from 2009 to 2014, it is likely that D t ≥ Y t for t = 2009, …, 2014.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combating Rhino Horn Trafficking: The Need to Disrupt Criminal Networks

Haas

Ferreira

2016

PLoS ONE

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The onslaught on the World’s wildlife continues despite numerous initiatives aimed at curbing it. We build a model that integrates rhino horn trade with rhino population dynamics in order to evaluate the impact of various management policies on rhino sustainability. In our model, an agent-based sub-model of horn trade from the poaching event up through a purchase of rhino horn in Asia impacts rhino abundance. A data-validated, individual-based sub-model of the rhino population of South Africa provides these abundance values. We evaluate policies that consist of different combinations of legal trade initiatives, demand reduction marketing campaigns, increased anti-poaching measures within protected areas, and transnational policing initiatives aimed at disrupting those criminal syndicates engaged in horn trafficking. Simulation runs of our model over the next 35 years produces a sustainable rhino population under only one management policy. This policy includes both a transnational policing effort aimed at dismantling those criminal networks engaged in rhino horn trafficking—coupled with increases in legal economic opportunities for people living next to protected areas where rhinos live. This multi-faceted approach should be the focus of the international debate on strategies to combat the current slaughter of rhino rather than the binary debate about whether rhino horn trade should be legalized. This approach to the evaluation of wildlife management policies may be useful to apply to other species threatened by wildlife trafficking.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combating Rhino Horn Trafficking: The Need to Disrupt Criminal Networks

Haas

Ferreira

2016

PLoS ONE

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“…But if an institution is represented by a proper object (which may change over time and whose effect may change depending on the support it gets from the agents) that interacts with the agents, then one can speak of a direct interaction of two ontological levels and thus proper downward effects. 12 Thus, ABMs allow a very precise study of institutions, rules and networks on a potential meso-level of the system and their corresponding relation to the individual agents (Elsner & Heinrich, 2009;Elsner, Heinrich, & Schwardt, 2014). Also, the agents do not necessarily follow the same stimulus -response pattern the whole time, but can be given the ability to adapt themselves to their environment, learn from past experience and develop new objectives and strategies.…”

Section: Forum For Social Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But these could be added into the model without great difficulty. 9 For a very good introduction into game theory and evolutionary game theory from an institutionalist perspective, seeElsner et al (2014).FORUM FOR SOCIAL ECONOMICS 12 Downloaded by [New York University] at 23:43 23 June 2015…”

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confidence: 99%

Formal Approaches to Socio-economic Analysis—Past and Perspectives

Gräbner

2015

Forum for Social Economics

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This paper is motivated by the observation that (1) socio-economic analysis uses significantly less formalisms than mainstream economics and (2) that there exist numerous situations in which socio-economics could benefit from a more formal analysis. This is particularly the case when institutions play an important role in the system to be investigated. Starting with a broad conception of formalism, this paper introduces and discusses five different formal approaches regarding their adequateness for socio-economic analysis: The Social Fabric Matrix Approach, the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, System Dynamics, (Evolutionary) Game Theory and Agent Based Computational Modelling. Every formalism entails implicit ontological and epistemological tendencies that have to be reflected on if the formalism should contribute to a better understanding of the system under investigation. The above-mentioned formalisms are no exception. Therefore, this paper pays particular attention to these tendencies. In the end, antagonisms and possible convergences among the formalisms are discussed.

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“…On the meso level, ACE models allow the natural inclusion of institutions, rules and networks (Elsner and Heinrich, 2009;Elsner et al, 2014). It is therefore straightforward to study phenomena such as reconstitutive downward causation in these models (Hodgson and Knudsen, 2004).…”

Section: What Agent-based-computational Models Are Aboutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is not surprising that this kind of models are particularly prominent in the complexity economics research program that interprets the economy as a complex system, i.e. a system made up from many heterogeneous, direct interdependent and adaptive agents (Elsner et al, 2014). Although some see the complexity research program to be a mere extension to neoclassical economics (Durlauf, 2005, p. F225), leading figures of the field consider it to be "a different way to think about economics" (Arthur, 2013).…”

Section: What Agent-based-computational Models Are Aboutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agent-based computational models– a formal heuristic for institutionalist pattern modelling?

Gräbner

2015

Journal of Institutional Economics

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Institutionalist economists have always been criticizing the neoclassical way of studying the economy, especially because of its obsession to a very strict and flawed formalism. This formalism receives critique also from advocates of agent-based computational economic (ACE) models. The criticism seems to be similar to that of institutional economists. Although some authors consider ACE models to belong to a completely new way of thinking about economics, many concepts of ACE have been anticipated by institutionalists: Although using a different vocabulary, ACE proponents speak about cumulative causation, realistic agents, explanatory models, dynamic relations among individuals and the necessity to see the economy as an systemic whole rather than from an atomistic perspective. Consequently, the emergence of the ACE framework may not be left unconsidered by institutionalist economists. This paper investigates the consistency of ACE models with the institutionalist research program as defined by Myrdal, Wilber and Harrison and other original institutionalists and discusses whether ACE models can be a useful heuristic for institutionalist "pattern modelling". I study the ability of ACE models to provide a holistic, systemic and evolutionary picture of the economy, the conception of agents in ACE models, and ask whether they can help to understand the social stratification of a society with its power relations. I also compare ACE models with earlier attempts to formalize institutionalist analysis, e.g. by Bush and Elsner (Theory of Institutional Change), Hayden (Social-Fabric-Matrix) or Radzicki (System Dynamics).

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Introduction to the Microeconomics of Complex Economies

Cited by 29 publications

References 2 publications

Combating Rhino Horn Trafficking: The Need to Disrupt Criminal Networks

Combating Rhino Horn Trafficking: The Need to Disrupt Criminal Networks

Formal Approaches to Socio-economic Analysis—Past and Perspectives

Agent-based computational models– a formal heuristic for institutionalist pattern modelling?

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