Implicit Microfoundations for Macroeconomics

Artikel

A large market economy has a huge number of degrees of freedom with weak microlevel coordination. The 'implicit microfoundations' approach considers this property of micro-level interactions to more strongly determine macro-level outcomes compared to the precise details of individual choice behavior; that is, the 'particle' nature of individuals dominates their 'mechanical' nature. So rather than taking an 'explicit microfoundations' approach, in which individuals are represented as 'white-box' sources of fully-specified optimizing behavior ('rational agents'), we instead represent individuals as 'black box' sources of unpredictable noise subject to objective constraints ('zero-intelligence agents'). To illustrate the potential of the approach we examine a parsimonious, agent-based macroeconomic model with implicit microfoundations. It generates many of the reported empirical distributions of capitalist economies, including the distribution of income, firm sizes, firm growth, GDP and recessions.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal ; ISSN: 1864-6042 ; Volume: 3 ; Year: 2009 ; Issue: 2009-19 ; Pages: 1-27 ; Kiel: Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines ; Economic Methodology ; Computational Techniques; Simulation Modeling ; General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium: General ; General Aggregative Models: Marxian; Sraffian; Kaleckian ; Capitalist Systems: Political Economy
• Subject: Microfoundations ; macroeconomics ; aggregation ; power laws ; Mikroökonomische Fundierung ; Agent-based Model ; Aggregation ; Makroökonomik ; Marktwirtschaft ; Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Wright, Ian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
• (where): Kiel
• (when): 2009

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2009-19
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/27538
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET