The Microeconomics of Complex Economies uses game theory, modeling approaches, formal techniques, and computer simulations to teach useful, accessible approaches to real modern economies. It covers topics of information and innovation, including national and regional systems of innovation; clustered and networked firms; and open-source/open-innovation production and use. Its final chapter on policy perspectives and decisions confirms the value of the toolset. Written so chapters can be used independently, the book includes an introduction to computer simulation and pedagogical supplements. Its formal, accessible treatment of complexity goes beyond the scopes of neoclassical and mainstream economics. The highly interdependent economy of the 21st century demands a reconsideration of economic theories. - Describes the usefulness of complex heterodox economics - Emphasizes divergences and convergences with neoclassical economic theories and perspectives - Fits easily into courses on intermediate microeconomics, industrial organization, and games through self-contained chapters

A 'Non-Toxic' Intermediate Textbook 'Here, at last, we have the ideal textbook for microeconomics from an evolutionary and institutional perspective. Wolfram Elsner does nothing less than reconstruct the principles of microeconomics for a world of interactive business networks, change and innovation, crisis and uncertainty, as well as coordination problems and cooperative joint ventures. The publication of this book is a landmark event in microeconomics.' – Phillip A. O'Hara, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia and President-Elect of AFEE, 2012 'This microeconomics textbook by Wolfram Elsner provides a timely alternative for understanding the micro roots of uncertainty, complexity and crisis. The evolutionary and institutional perspective sheds new light on contemporary issues such as clusters, networks, innovation and coordination. By reading this textbook, teachers, students and practitioners will open their minds to new economic thinking.' – Ping Chen, Peking University, Beijing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China and author of Economic Complexity and Equilibrium Illusion This thorough reconstruction of microeconomics 'post-2008' provides economic students with a new way of real-world understanding and strategic qualification that will be better appreciated by their future employers and any professional practice. It will prove essential for economic students and other social science programs at a graduate level. This accessible and engaging textbook includes: • A survey of the most famous core models of modern microeconomics including the neoclassical approach and its heterodox critiques – Sraffian, Institutionalist, Post-Keynesian and Mirowskian • An introduction to complexity thinking in economics • An introduction to game theory • An introduction to the methods of complex computer simulation • An introduction to strategic behavior • An newly integrated approach to real-world and complexity economics, rather than focusing on neoclassical ('perfect') market equilibrium 'plus a thousand recent extra things on top'. See the companion website – www.microeconomics.us – for teaching material, readings, exams and as a general guide to explore issues raised in the book.

V. 1. An introduction to dynamical systems and market mechanisms -- v. 2. An introduction to macroeconomics dynamics.

The Theory of the Firm presents an innovative general analysis of the economics of the firm.

This work acts as a critique of the basis of neoclassical microeconomics, and makes a proposal for the structure of a new evolutionary theory.

How ideas in complexity can be used to develop more effective public policy Complexity science—made possible by modern analytical and computational advances—is changing the way we think about social systems and social theory. Unfortunately, economists' policy models have not kept up and are stuck in either a market fundamentalist or government control narrative. While these standard narratives are useful in some cases, they are damaging in others, directing thinking away from creative, innovative policy solutions. Complexity and the Art of Public Policy outlines a new, more flexible policy narrative, which envisions society as a complex evolving system that is uncontrollable but can be influenced. David Colander and Roland Kupers describe how economists and society became locked into the current policy framework, and lay out fresh alternatives for framing policy questions. Offering original solutions to stubborn problems, the complexity narrative builds on broader philosophical traditions, such as those in the work of John Stuart Mill, to suggest initiatives that the authors call "activist laissez-faire" policies. Colander and Kupers develop innovative bottom-up solutions that, through new institutional structures such as for-benefit corporations, channel individuals’ social instincts into solving societal problems, making profits a tool for change rather than a goal. They argue that a central role for government in this complexity framework is to foster an ecostructure within which diverse forms of social entrepreneurship can emerge and blossom.

In this novel introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency. Each chapter is introduced by empirical puzzles or historical episodes illuminated by the modeling that follows, and the book closes with sets of problems to be solved by readers seeking to improve their mathematical modeling skills. Complementing standard mathematical analysis are agent-based computer simulations of complex evolving systems that are available online so that readers can experiment with the models. Bowles concludes with the time-honored challenge of "getting the rules right," providing an evaluation of markets, states, and communities as contrasting and yet sometimes synergistic structures of governance. Must reading for students and scholars not only in economics but across the behavioral sciences, this engagingly written and compelling exposition of the new microeconomics moves the field beyond the conventional models of prices and markets toward a more accurate and policy-relevant portrayal of human social behavior.