Complex Evolutionary Dynamics in Urban-Regional and Ecologic-Economic Systems

Expanding on central portions of the theory explored in the first edition, this reworking of the seminal economics text examines applications engendered by the concept of discontinuity in various subdisciplines of economics, including urban and evolutionary.

Drawing on the middle chapters from the first edition of J. Barkley Rosser's seminal work, From Catastrophe to Chaos, this book presents an unusual perspective on economics and economic analysis. Current economic theory largely depends upon assuming that the world is fundamentally continuous. However, an increasing amount of economic research has been done using approaches that allow for discontinuities such as catastrophe theory, chaos theory, synergetics, and fractal geometry. The spread of such approaches across a variety of disciplines of thought has constituted a virtual intellectual revolution in recent years. This book reviews the applications of these approaches in various subdisciplines of economics and draws upon past economic thinkers to develop an integrated view of economics as a whole from the perspective of inherent discontinuity.

Provides fresh, new applications for nonlinear dynamics in economics based on two decades of feedback from readers. Includes revised and expanded versions of chapters from previous editions. Combines into one volume previously separate chapters on mathematics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, urban/spatial, ecological/environmental, and international economics. Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras