The Microeconomics of Complex Economies

Part I: Basics of the Interdependent Economy and Its Processes 1. Introduction to the Microeconomics of Complex Economies 2. Tools I: An Introduction to Game Theory 3. Problem Structures and Processes in Complex Economies 4. Approaching Real-World Interdependence and Complexity: Empirical Phenomena in the Global Economy

Part II: Markets: General-Equilibrium Theory and Real-World Market Structures 5. The Ideal Neoclassical Market and General Equilibrium 6. Critiques of the Neoclassical "Perfect Market” Economy and Alternative Price Theories 7. Real-World Markets: Hierarchy, Size, Power, and Oligopoly, Direct Interdependence and Instability

Part III: Further Tools and the Analysis of Complex Economies 8. Tools II: More Formal Concepts of Game Theory and Evolutionary Game Theory 9. Tools III: An Introduction to Simulation and Agent-Based Modeling 10. A Universe of Economies: Interdependence and Complexity, System Trajectories, Chaos, and Self-Organization 11. Dynamics, Complexity, Evolution, and Emergence-The Roles of Game Theory and Simulation Methods

Part IV: History of Thought and Contemporary Models in Complexity Economics 12. Themes of Complexity in the History of Economic Thought: Glimpses at A. Smith, T.B. Veblen, J.A. Schumpeter, and Others 13. Recent Core Models of Complexity Microeconomics 14. The Size Dimension of Complex Economies-Towards a Meso-Economics: The Size of Interaction Arenas and the Emergence of Meso-Platforms of Institutional Coordination

Part V: Further Applications: Information, Innovation, Policy, and Methodology 15. The Information Economy and the Open-Source Principle 16. Networks and Innovation-The Networked Firm, Innovation Systems, and Varieties of Capitalism 17. Policy Implications: New Policy Perspectives for Private Agents, Networks, Network Consultants, and Public Policy Agencies 18. How to Deal with Knowledge of Complexity Microeconomics: Theories, Empirics, Applications, and Actions

Wolfram Elsner is professor of economics with the Institute for Institutional and Innovation Economics at the University Bremen in Germany. Before working in academia, he spent ten years as a local development official and state-level planner. He has published widely in various journals, has edited several books, and authored three textbooks. He is the managing editor of the Forum for Social Economics and has served as the President of the European Association for Evolutional Political Economy.

"...a rare tentative to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools...a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own." --Mind and Society

"...a rare tentative to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools...a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own."--Mind and Society

"The Microeconomics of Complex Economies by Wolfram Elsner, Torsten Heinrich and Henning Schwardt is a very well edited, versatile and powerful textbook. It delivers what it ambitiously promises: a pluralist introduction into microeconomics with a focus on social complexity. It can be used in any microeconomic course but it may be analytically too advanced to become a standard textbook. It provides plentiful of exercises for lecturers and students as well as helpful boxes illustrating topical real-world problems. EHS have delivered a grand and unique microeconomic pluralist textbook that deserves highest attention in the economic community." --Economic Methodology

"This book is a rare attempt to innovate Economics, starting from the way in which this discipline is taught. New approaches pose different questions and require new tools. Yet, the Neoclassical analysis cannot be rejected at this stage (at least because of its diffusion among scholars), and it is not rejected in this book, but it is just a part of the picture. The book is a great example of how to develop a critical approach, and so how to teach students to think on their own." --Mind and Society