- Edition showcases advances in complexity economics;
- Editorial team includes seven researchers from INET Oxford;
- Complexity economics provides a powerful framework for tackling real-world policy challenges, and is getting notable results.
A special issue of the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization published this month has showcased the growing relevance and successes of complexity economics in offering solutions to the global policy challenges of the 21st Century.
The edition, co-edited by a team that included seven researchers from the complexity economics programme at INET Oxford, spans a wide range of domains, illustrating how methodological innovations in complexity economics are being applied to diverse and incredibly important policy contexts.
Topics covered include:
- Climate economics, including physical risk(direct and cascading losses from hazards) and transition risk (the instabilities that emerge endogenously during rapid decarbonisation).
- Inequality and institutions. The SI features articles exploring behavioral effects underpinning experienced inequality, the long-term impacts of life shocks, and the co-evolution of cultural and institutional capacity.
- Technological change, including an article on the impact of AI on labor markets, and an article applying economic complexity tools to forecast city-level innovation trajectories.
- Production networks. The SI features articles that explore the role of supply chains in mediating the diffusion of shocks, as well as a more fundamental article assessing how statistical properties of production networks arise out of simple null models.
- Macroeconomics, including articles on business cycles and macro-prudential policies.
- Agent-based modelling methods, including better methods to calibrate ABMs, choose the right scale, and analyse the data they generate.
This special issue was put together following the Conference on Complex Systems Approaches to 21st Century Challenges: Inequality, Climate Change and New Technologies, held at the Santa Fe Institute on July 31st - August 2nd, 2023. The Editorial team includes Jenna Bednar, Maria del Rio-Chanona, J. Doyne Farmer, Jagoda Kaszowska-Mojsa, François Lafond, Penny Mealy, Marco Pangallo and Anton Pichler.
Editorial team spokesperson Francois Lafond said that the special issue was timely, capturing a vibrant moment in the evolution of complexity economics.
"Over the past decade, the field has made substantial methodological strides, largely enabled by access to high-resolution microdata and the growing demand for tools that can address the interconnected and adaptive nature of economic systems.
"Looking ahead, the research frontier in complexity economics lies in continued integration of methodological innovation with empirical validation and policy relevance.”
