The Economy as an Evolving Complex System

This book proceeds from a meeting at the Santa Fe Institute where economists and physical and biological scientists came together to discuss a conceptual framework incorporating a more appropriate mathematics with a greatly strengthened capacity to deal simultaneously with multiple variables, nonlinearity, incomplete information and dynamical processes.

Economics is currently undergoing its most profound change since the 1800s. Instead of seeing the economy as a perfectly ordered, rational system, economists are beginning to see it as an ecology of actions, forecasts, strategies, and technologies that are always changing and adapting. This new vision helps answer questions economics couldn't answer before.

The science of a complex world

Taking readers on an entertaining journey through economic history, from the stone-age to the modern economy, Beinhocker explores how "complexity economics" provides provocative insights on issues ranging from creating adaptive organizations, to the evolutionary workings of stock markets, to new perspectives on government policies. A landmark book that shatters conventional economic theory, The Origin of Wealth will rewire our thinking about how we came to be here—and where we are going.