Evolutionary Financial Macroeconomics

Thorstein Veblen and Hyman Minsky are seminal thinkers who place great importance on the interaction between processes that link finance and financial markets with economic and social evolution. This book makes a contribution to the recontextualisation of the habitual, non-evolutionary and laissez-faire macroeconomic theory and policy, thus exposing the relevant contribution of the macro-theories of Veblen and Minsky. The book starts with an elucidation of Veblen’s cultural theory of insufficient private demand, waste and financial fragility and instability. It shows how speculative and parasitic leverage engenders solvency illusions and risk, pecuniary efficiency, low quality liability structures and socially destructive boom-bust cycles. Minsky’s creative destruction liquidity processes and coordination failures of cash flow escalate the aforementioned path-dependent developments and explosive dynamics of capitalist economies. The main themes of the book are the cultural, evolutionary and holistic vision of macroeconomics, the evolving habits of mind, routines and financial institutions, the speculative, manipulated and unstable financial markets, as well as the financial macroeconomic destabilizing effects of pecuniary and parasitic consumption and investment. This book will be of great interest to researchers, intellectuals and students pursuing economics and finance.

First published in 1987, Evolutionary Macroeconomics offers an evolutionary approach to macroeconomics as an alternative to contemporary new classical and Keynesian macroeconomics. In order to develop such an approach, an alternative view of the micro-foundations of macroeconomics is presented. The book begins with a commentary on the state of macroeconomics and an evaluation of attempts to redevelop its underlying vision of economic behaviour. Particular attention is paid to the treatment of expectations and anticipations. The second part of the book presents a behavioural framework which is compatible with an evolutionary perspective on economic behaviour. The third part of the book discusses the implications of adopting an evolutionary approach to macroeconomic theory, empirical methods and policy design, culminating in a specific policy proposal to cure stagflation.

After a decade's development, evolutionary computation (EC) proves to be a powerful tool kit for economic analysis. While the demand for this equipment is increasing, there is no volume exclusively written for economists. This volume for the first time helps economists to get a quick grasp on how EC may support their research. A comprehensive coverage of the subject is given, that includes the following three areas: game theory, agent-based economic modelling and financial engineering. Twenty leading scholars from each of these areas contribute a chapter to the volume. The reader will find himself treading the path of the history of this research area, from the fledgling stage to the burgeoning era. The results on games, labour markets, pollution control, institution and productivity, financial markets, trading systems design and derivative pricing, are new and interesting for different target groups. The book also includes informations on web sites, conferences, and computer software.

Leading economists discuss post–financial crisis policy dilemmas, including the dangers of complacency in a period of relative stability. The Great Depression led to the Keynesian revolution and dramatic shifts in macroeconomic theory and macroeconomic policy. Similarly, the stagflation of the 1970s led to the adoption of the natural rate hypothesis and to a major reassessment of the role of macroeconomic policy. Should the financial crisis and the Great Recession lead to yet another major reassessment, to another intellectual revolution? Will it? If so, what form should it, or will it, take? These are the questions taken up in this book, in a series of contributions by policymakers and academics. The contributors discuss the complex role of the financial sector, the relative roles of monetary and fiscal policy, the limits of monetary policy to address financial stability, the need for fiscal policy to play a more active role in stabilization, and the relative roles of financial regulation and macroprudential tools. The general message is a warning against going back to precrisis ways—to narrow inflation targeting, little use of fiscal policy for stabilization, and insufficient financial regulation. Contributors David Aikman, Alan J. Auerbach, Ben S. Bernanke, Olivier Blanchard, Lael Brainard, Markus K. Brunnermeier, Marco Buti, Benoît Cœuré, Mario Draghi, Barry Eichengreen, Jason Furman, Gita Gopinath, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Andrew G. Haldane, Philipp Hildebrand, Marc Hinterschweiger, Sujit Kapadia, Nellie Liang, Adam S. Posen, Raghuram Rajan, Valerie Ramey, Carmen Reinhart, Dani Rodrik, Robert E. Rubin, Jay C. Shambaugh, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Jeremy C. Stein, Lawrence H. Summers

After a decade's development, evolutionary computation (EC) proves to be a powerful tool kit for economic analysis. While the demand for this equipment is increasing, there is no volume exclusively written for economists. This volume for the first time helps economists to get a quick grasp on how EC may support their research. A comprehensive coverage of the subject is given, that includes the following three areas: game theory, agent-based economic modelling and financial engineering. Twenty leading scholars from each of these areas contribute a chapter to the volume. The reader will find himself treading the path of the history of this research area, from the fledgling stage to the burgeoning era. The results on games, labour markets, pollution control, institution and productivity, financial markets, trading systems design and derivative pricing, are new and interesting for different target groups. The book also includes informations on web sites, conferences, and computer software.

A concise analysis of the evolution of monetary policy and banking institutions over the past sixty years that stresses the dynamic interactions between the Federal Reserve and banking institutions that resulted from financial market innovations. Institutions were influenced by increasing competition in markets and monetary policies. The book consists of two parts, which are organized chronologically. The first has chapters that correspond with terms of chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board. It critically analyzes decisions taken by the Federal Open Market Committee in each period and argues that innovations forced changes in the design and conduct of monetary policy. The second part analyzes how banking institutions evolved from a very conservative and regulated system in 1945 to highly inventive financial firms and how this evolution has affected the distribution of credit, wealth, and income in the US.

Beinhocker has written this work in order to introduce a broad audience to what he believes is a revolutionary new paradigm in economics and its implications for our understanding of the creation of wealth. He describes how the growing field of complexity theory allows for evolutionary understanding of wealth creation, in which business designs co-evolve with the evolution of technologies and organizational innovations. In addition to giving his audience a tour of this field of complexity economics, he discusses its implications for real-world issues of business.