Technological Change, Learning and Macro-Economic Coordination: an Evolutionary Model

The purpose of the paper is to model the process of rule generation by firms that must allocate their resources between physical assets, training, and R&D, and to study the microeconomic performances as well as the aggregate outcomes. The framework is a complete micro-macroeconomic Leontieff-Keynesian model initialised with Swedish firms, and provides one of the first applications of the " artificial world " methodology to a complete economic system. The model also displays detailed features of technological change and firms' human capital. In this complex and evolving Schumpeterian environment, firms are "boundedly rational" and use rules. They learn better rules to survive, and we model this process with the use of classifiers. We are able to show that the diversity of rules is sustained over time, as well as the heterogeneity of firms' performances. Simple rules appear to secure larger market shares than complex rules. The learning process improves macroeconomic performance to a large extent whereas barriers to entry are also detrimental for macroeconomic performance.