14th-17th July 2005
Evolutionary Macroeconomics: Building Micro and Meso Foundations from Studies of Systems of Innovation, Self-Organization, Competitive Processes, Knowledge Networks and Complex Adaptive Economic Systems
In 1999 and 2003, the University of Queensland School of Economics and the ESRC Centre for Research in Innovation and Competition (CRIC) at the University of Manchester jointly organized international workshops, in Brisbane and Manchester respectively, dealing with the interface between evolutionary economics, complex systems science and the large literature on innovation theory and policy. These gave rise to two very successful edited volumes, published by Edward Elgar: Frontiers of Evolutionary Economics: Competition, Self-organization and Innovation Policy (2001) and Evolution and Economic Complexity (2004).
Another international workshop will take place in Brisbane from the 14th to the 17th July 2005 (Principal Sponsors: ARC Centre for Complex Systems, the Australian Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, and the UQ School of Economics). This time the workshop will explore the macroeconomic implications of: complex systems approaches to evolutionary economics; modern studies of innovation; and new insights from ‘knowledge economy' perspectives on economic systems.
It is now eighteen years since Evolutionary Macroeconomics was published but, despite the fact that this book sold very well, no widely accepted evolutionary approach to macroeconomics came into being in the 1990s. What we have in the evolutionary economic literature are only fragments of macro analysis and modeling, mainly in the area of economic growth. Meanwhile, macroeconomics has become, increasingly, an application of neoclassical microeconomics. Real business cycle theory, thought to be highly unrealistic and impossible to use by most economists a decade ago, has now gained official credence with the award of the Nobel Prize to Edward Prescott. Endogenous growth theory, although sometimes associated with the ideas of Joseph Schumpeter, is a construction built upon Robert Solow's neoclassical theory of economic growth. Even New Keynesian macroeconomists have publicly distanced most of their ideas from those of John Maynard Keynes, preferring work with a theory which has a neoclassical ‘long run' that is deviated from in the ‘short run' because of the presence of asymmetric information and incompleteness in markets.
It is intended that this workshop will lead to new perspectives on the micro-foundations of macroeconomics that will help us to understand more clearly how processes such as innovation lead to beneficial macroeconomic outcomes and how economic systems that are recognized as being complex and adaptive can fluctuate endogenously through phases of inflation and recession. It is hoped that the macroeconomics of developing countries can also be better understood using these perspectives, bearing in mind just how inappropriate standard macroeconomics often is in such conditions. Since macroeconomics has always been a ‘policy science', discussions of policy would seem to be appropriate. For example, innovation policy and policies to provide better information and communications infrastructure are generally felt to be ‘a good thing' but the macroeconomic benefits of different policies of this kind are rarely quantified because there are very few models available to use for this purpose.
The International Participants
The international participants at this workshop will be: Esben Andersen (Aalborg University, Denmark), Christiano Antonelli (University of Turin, Italy), Ken Carlaw (University Canterbury, New Zealand), Uwe Cantner (University of Jena, Germany), Robert Delorme (CEPREMAP, Paris, France), Kurt Dopfer (University of St Gallen, Switzerland), Giovanni Dosi (University of Pisa, Italy), Jan Fagerberg (University of Oslo, Norway), Horst Hanusch (University of Augsburg, Germany), Stan Metcalfe (University of Manchester, UK), Phil Mirowski (University of Notre Dame, USA), Paul Omerod (Volterra Consulting London, UK), Andreas Pyka (University of Augsburg, Germany), Paolo Ramazotti (University of Macerata, Italy), Bridget Roswell (Volterra Consulting, London, UK), Paulo Saviotti (INRA/SERD, Grenoble, France), Bart Verspagen (Technical University, Eindhoven, The Netherlands), Ulrich Witt (Max Planck Institute, Jena, Germany).
The Workshop will take place at Women's College, UQ Campus. There will be up to seventeen papers presented by our international participants. Considerable time will be set aside for open discussion. If it is possible, we hope that most of the nominated discussants will be from Australia and New Zealand with their comments written up in short papers (as in the Frontiers of Evolutionary Economics). Every effort will be made to get drafts of papers to discussants prior to the workshop.
Final workshop programme - CLICK HERE
Titles and Papers - CLICK HERE
Workshop Participants - CLICK HERE
Accommodation:
Standard accommodation (shared facilities) will be available at Women's College at $65.00 per day, including breakfast. For those who prefer hotel accommodation, the College is close to the City Cat Ferry Terminal with easy connections to hotels in Toowong and the City.
Charges:
A nominal charge of $80 ($25 for single day participation) will be made to cover lunches, morning/afternoon teas, etc, payable on registration at the Workshop. The optional Workshop Dinner on the 16th July will cost $60. Normal dinners on other nights at Women's College will cost $15.00.
Contact:
Those interested in participating should contact Leonard Fitzpatrick, School of Economics, UQ. Please note that places are limited and will be allocated on a ‘first come first served' basis. Those who are interested in being considered as nominated discussants should notify Leonard when making contact.