Review of Theories of Financial Disturbance: An Examination of Critical Theories of Finance from Adam Smith to the Present Day
rent view of error in economics. Economists, he laments, see an error either as a measurement error, a shock, or a perturbation from a steady state. He notes that an extensive and prolonged debate within economics did not get rid of many inconsistencies in the interpretation of error in economic models. Uwe Cantner and Jens Kruger of Friedrich-Schiller University in Germany report on an empirical study that compared performance mobility and market share mobility of large German firms during the period of 1981-1993. The authors used two approaches to measure mobility: Salter curves, which display heterogeneity among the firms, and the transition matrix of a Markov chain. Each approach led them to conclude that performance mobility as measured by productivity is significantly greater than market share mobility as measured by output shares. Andreas Pyka, Bernd Ebersberger, and Horst Hanusch from the University of Augsburg in Germany present an outline of an agent-based model of an energy sector. In their view, neoclassical economic models are inadequate for capturing the multidimensional complexity of the sector. Their model, once implemented, will consist of artificial energy producers, energy consumers, policy makers, and regulatory agencies. They will use genetic algorithms to approximate the decision making by agents. Models will be used to study recent developments in the German energy system. Overall, I recommend Evolution and Economic Complexity for academics and advanced students interested in evolutionary research, complexity, or agent-based modeling.