The Guidance of an Enterprise Economy

by Martin Shubik, Eric Smith

Overview

A rigorous theory of money, credit, and bankruptcy in the context of a mixed economy, uniting Walrasian general equilibrium with macroeconomic dynamics and Schumpeterian innovation.

This book offers a rigorous study of control, guidance, and coordination problems of an enterprise economy, with attention to the roles of money and financial institutions. The approach is distinctive in drawing on game theory, methods of physics and experimental gaming, and, more generally, a broader evolutionary perspective from the biological and behavioral sciences. The proposed theory unites Walrasian general equilibrium with macroeconomic dynamics and Schumpeterian innovation utilizing strategic market games. Problems concerning the meaning of rational economic behavior and the concept of solution are noted.

The authors argue that process models of the economy can be built that are consistent with the general equilibrium system but become progressively more complex as new functions are added. Explicit embedding of the economy within the framework of government and society provides a natural, both formal and informal, control system.

The authors describe how to build and analyze multistate models with simple assumptions about behavior, and develop a general modeling methodology for the construction of models as playable games.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262546775
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	11/01/2022
Pages:	592
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Martin Shubik was Seymour Knox Professor of Mathematical Institutional Economics (Emeritus) at Yale University's Cowles Foundation and School of Management and the author of the three-volume work The Theory of Money and Financial Institutions (MIT Press) and other books. He was also External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.

Eric Smith is Professor and Principal Investigator at the Earth-Life Science Institute in Tokyo and Research Professor at George Mason University's Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study. He is the coauthor of Symmetry and Collective Fluctuations in Evolutionary Games and The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth. He is External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute.

What People are Saying About This

W. Brian Arthur

General equilibrium theory provides our deepest insights into how an economy is structured. But it takes as given the institutions and processes by which an equilibrium can be reached. Shubik and Smith's book fills both these gaps, creatively and elegantly. They show that in any attempt to reinterpretgeneral equilibrium as a process model institutions must emerge.Brilliant and important work!

E. Roy Weintraub

This is a landmark volume. The primary lacuna in integrating microeconomics and macroeconomics has been the failure to reconcile general equilibrium theory with monetary theory. This book represents the first modern attempt to provide an intellectual framework in which money appears naturally in the various market institutions.

David Colander

J. M. Keynes once said that a master economist must be a mathematician, historian, statesman, and philosopher, must understand symbols and speak in words, must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and must touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. Martin Shubik and Eric Smith are master economists. Their book is a masterful presentation blending theory and practice in imaginative ways.

Endorsement

General equilibrium theory provides our deepest insights into how an economy is structured. But it takes as given the institutions and processes by which an equilibrium can be reached. Shubik and Smith's book fills both these gaps, creatively and elegantly. They show that in any attempt to reinterpretgeneral equilibrium as a process model institutions must emerge.Brilliant and important work!

—W. Brian Arthur, External Professor, Santa Fe Institute

From the Publisher

This is a landmark volume. The primary lacuna in integrating microeconomics and macroeconomics has been the failure to reconcile general equilibrium theory with monetary theory. This book represents the first modern attempt to provide an intellectual framework in which money appears naturally in the various market institutions.

—E. Roy Weintraub, Professor of Economics, Duke University

J. M. Keynes once said that a master economist must be a mathematician, historian, statesman, and philosopher, must understand symbols and speak in words, must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and must touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. Martin Shubik and Eric Smith are master economists. Their book is a masterful presentation blending theory and practice in imaginative ways.

—David Colander, Distinguished College Professor, Middlebury College; author of Complexity and the Art of Public Policy

General equilibrium theory provides our deepest insights into how an economy is structured. But it takes as given the institutions and processes by which an equilibrium can be reached. Shubik and Smith's book fills both these gaps, creatively and elegantly. They show that in any attempt to reinterpret general equilibrium as a process model institutions must emerge. Brilliant and important work!

—W. Brian Arthur, External Professor, Santa Fe Institute