Workshop on
The Economy as a Complex System
December 6-7, 2004
C. I. T. Campus, Taramani, Chennai 600 113
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Adam Smith (1723-1790),
one of the founding fathers of modern economics, was probably the first person
in history to characterize the essential feature of a complex system, that
of emergent properties (i.e., properties that are absent in the component
parts of a complex system, but emerge at the system-level through interactions
between the parts), when he talked about how the invisible or hidden hand
of the free market operated through the pursuit of self-interest of individual
agents to allocate resources in the society's best interest.
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The last decade has seen a rising interest in the study of complex systems, and in particular, the study of the economy as a complex system, which views economic and financial phenomena as emerging from the interactions of individual agents whose behavior is constantly evolving to adapt their strategies and actions to the changing circumstances. The traditional framework in economics portrays economic activity within an equilibrium steady state, while in finance, the dominant paradigm has been that of uncorrelated stochastic process underlying the famous Black-Scholes formula. The agents are thought to be homogeneous that solve well-defined problems using perfect rationality. The complex systems approach, by contrast, sees economic activity as an essentially non-equilibrium process, a process of continuous change. The interacting agents are heterogeneous that have to interpret the problems they face with limited information at their disposal, and collectively they create structures such as markets, legal & social institutions, price patterns, etc. to which they individually react. The object of the meeting is to bring together active researchers working in economics, finance, physics and mathematics to achieve an understanding of the general principles underlying the complex systems approach to studying economic and financial phenomena. |
| Bikas K. Chakrabarti |
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| Sanjay Jain |
Delhi University, Delhi |
| Krishna Maddaly |
IMSc, Chennai |
| T. P. Madhusoodanan |
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| P Muruganandam |
Bharatidasan University, Trichy |
| Ajay Shah |
Ministry of Finance, New Delhi |
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MSE, Chennai |
| S. K. Shanthi |
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| Sitabhra Sinha |
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| E. Somanathan |
ISI, Delhi |
| S. Subramanian |
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| Brinda Vishwanathan |
MSE, Chennai |
Organizer: Sitabhra Sinha [IMSc]
For participation please contact the organizer at
sitabhra [at] imsc.res.in
| Getting Here | Poster in PostScript format | Schedule of Talks | Enquiries |