IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/ngooec/v67y2021i3p53-66n5.html

An Economy’s Emergent Properties and How Micro Agents with Inconsistent or Conflicting Interests Are Holistically Organized into Macro Entities

Author

Listed:
  • Forrest Jeffrey Yi-Lin

    (Slippery Rock University, Department of Accounting Economics Finance, USA)

  • Gong Zaiwu

    (Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, School of Management Science and Engineering, China)

  • Köse Erkan

    (Nuh Naci Yazgan University, Industrial Engineering Department, Turkey)

  • Galbraith Diane D.

    (Slippery Rock University, Department of Management and Marketing, USA)

  • Arık Oğuzhan A.

    (Nuh Naci Yazgan University, Industrial Engineering Department, Turkey)

Abstract

The existing literature documents that computer simulations can reveal how characteristics of micro-level individuals give rise to macro-level phenomena of systemic wholes. This paper seeks to establish such an important simulation-based observation as a theoretical result on a sound foundation. Going beyond addressing when holistic phenomena can naturally emerge from micro-level characteristics, this paper investigates how and why many macro-level entities appear to answer market calls through organically gathering micro-level agents into uniformly-oriented operational wholes, even though these agents have inconsistent or even conflicting interests. This paper develops conclusions based on results of systems science and establishes a sufficient condition under which characteristics of micro-level agents can naturally lead to the appearance of macro-level properties of a systemic whole even though the former are heterogeneous and behave in an unintended and uncoordinated manner. This paper suggests to root each theoretical result of economics on elementary facts of personal belief-value systems and expands methods of networks and computer simulations to those of systems science. It explains when macro socioeconomic phenomena emerge out of unintended and uncoordinated actions and interactions of micro economic men, and provides a more general approach for developing reliable conclusions than those observed from computer simulations. It additionally derives conditions for when macro-level economic entities appear to answer market calls and how micro-level individuals with inconsistent or even conflicting interests can be organically congregated into operational business organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Forrest Jeffrey Yi-Lin & Gong Zaiwu & Köse Erkan & Galbraith Diane D. & Arık Oğuzhan A., 2021. "An Economy’s Emergent Properties and How Micro Agents with Inconsistent or Conflicting Interests Are Holistically Organized into Macro Entities," Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy, Sciendo, vol. 67(3), pages 53-66, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:vrs:ngooec:v:67:y:2021:i:3:p:53-66:n:5
    DOI: 10.2478/ngoe-2021-0017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe-2021-0017
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2478/ngoe-2021-0017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey Yi-Lin Forrest & Jeananne Nicholls & Kurt Schimmel & Sifeng Liu, 2020. "Managerial Decision Making," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-28064-2, January.
    2. Domenico Gatti & Edoardo Gaffeo & Mauro Gallegati, 2010. "Complex agent-based macroeconomics: a manifesto for a new paradigm," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 5(2), pages 111-135, December.
    3. J. Doyne Farmer & Duncan Foley, 2009. "The economy needs agent-based modelling," Nature, Nature, vol. 460(7256), pages 685-686, August.
    4. Boissay, Frédéric, 2006. "Credit chains and the propagation of financial distress," Working Paper Series 573, European Central Bank.
    5. David Vines & Samuel Wills, 2018. "The rebuilding macroeconomic theory project: an analytical assessment," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-42.
    6. Frank Smets & Rafael Wouters, 2007. "Shocks and Frictions in US Business Cycles: A Bayesian DSGE Approach," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 586-606, June.
    7. Schelling, Thomas C, 1969. "Models of Segregation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 488-493, May.
    8. Margaret A. Peteraf & Jay B. Barney, 2003. "Unraveling the resource-based tangle," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 309-323.
    9. Olivier Blanchard, 2018. "On the future of macroeconomic models," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 34(1-2), pages 43-54.
    10. Lucas, Robert Jr, 1976. "Econometric policy evaluation: A critique," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 19-46, January.
    11. Stefan Thurner & J. Doyne Farmer & John Geanakoplos, 2012. "Leverage causes fat tails and clustered volatility," Quantitative Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(5), pages 695-707, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zabavnik, Darja & Verbič, Miroslav, 2024. "Financial frictions in a macroeconometric model: A counterfactual analysis for the case of Slovenia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 48(4).
    2. Takeshi Yagihashi, 2020. "DSGE Models Used by Policymakers: A Survey," Discussion papers ron333, Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance Japan.
    3. Delli Gatti,Domenico & Fagiolo,Giorgio & Gallegati,Mauro & Richiardi,Matteo & Russo,Alberto (ed.), 2018. "Agent-Based Models in Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108400046.
    4. Moučka, Jakub & Němec, Daniel, 2025. "Improving macroeconomic model credibility: Reducing reliance on frictions through observed inflation expectations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    5. Ciccarelli, Matteo & Darracq Pariès, Matthieu & Priftis, Romanos & Angelini, Elena & Bańbura, Marta & Bokan, Nikola & Fagan, Gabriel & Gumiel, José Emilio & Kornprobst, Antoine & Lalik, Magdalena & Mo, 2024. "ECB macroeconometric models for forecasting and policy analysis," Occasional Paper Series 344, European Central Bank.
    6. James Dean & Scott Schuh, 2026. "From Conventional to Unconventional Monetary Policy: Is the Taylor Rule an Adequate Representation in Macro Models?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 1-48, February.
    7. Alessandro Caiani & Ermanno Catullo & Mauro Gallegati, 2018. "The effects of fiscal targets in a monetary union: a multi-country agent-based stock flow consistent model," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 1123-1154.
    8. Petropoulos, Fotios & Apiletti, Daniele & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios & Babai, Mohamed Zied & Barrow, Devon K. & Ben Taieb, Souhaib & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bessa, Ricardo J. & Bijak, Jakub & Boylan, Joh, 2022. "Forecasting: theory and practice," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 705-871.
      • Fotios Petropoulos & Daniele Apiletti & Vassilios Assimakopoulos & Mohamed Zied Babai & Devon K. Barrow & Souhaib Ben Taieb & Christoph Bergmeir & Ricardo J. Bessa & Jakub Bijak & John E. Boylan & Jet, 2020. "Forecasting: theory and practice," Papers 2012.03854, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2022.
    9. Poledna, Sebastian & Miess, Michael Gregor & Hommes, Cars & Rabitsch, Katrin, 2023. "Economic forecasting with an agent-based model," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    10. Cars Hommes & Mario He & Sebastian Poledna & Melissa Siqueira & Yang Zhang, 2022. "CANVAS: A Canadian Behavioral Agent-Based Model," Staff Working Papers 22-51, Bank of Canada.
    11. Hurtado, Samuel, 2014. "DSGE models and the Lucas critique," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 44(S1), pages 12-19.
    12. Albonico, Alice & Calés, Ludovic & Cardani, Roberta & Croitorov, Olga & Ferroni, Filippo & Giovannini, Massimo & Hohberger, Stefan & Pataracchia, Beatrice & Pericoli, Filippo Maria & Raciborski, Rafal, 2019. "Comparing post-crisis dynamics across Euro Area countries with the Global Multi-country model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 242-273.
    13. Alexander Tobón Arias, 2022. "La estructura lógica de la teoría del equilibrio general dinámico estocástico," Borradores Departamento de Economía 20477, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE.
    14. Jordi Galí & Mark Gertler, 2007. "Macroeconomic Modeling for Monetary Policy Evaluation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(4), pages 25-46, Fall.
    15. Pascal Seppecher & Isabelle Salle & Dany Lang, 2019. "Is the market really a good teacher?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 299-335, March.
    16. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 2019. "Practical policy evaluation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 29-45.
    17. Andrei Polbin & Sergey Drobyshevsky, 2014. "Developing a Dynamic Stochastic Model of General Equilibrium for the Russian Economy," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 166P, pages 156-156.
    18. Drissi, Ramzi & Ghassan, Hassan B., 2018. "Sticky Price versus Sticky Information Price: Empirical Evidence in the New Keynesian Setting," MPRA Paper 93075, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Apr 2019.
    19. Giorgio Fagiolo & Mattia Guerini & Francesco Lamperti & Alessio Moneta & Andrea Roventini, 2017. "Validation of Agent-Based Models in Economics and Finance," LEM Papers Series 2017/23, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    20. Bechný Jakub, 2019. "Output gap in the Czech economy: DSGE approach," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 19(2), pages 137-156, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • C65 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Miscellaneous Mathematical Tools

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:vrs:ngooec:v:67:y:2021:i:3:p:53-66:n:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.sciendo.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.