The Mirage of Microfoundations

The Microfoundations of Macroeconomics

We consider the microfoundations controversy from the perspective of economic evolution and show that the debate can benefit from lessons learned in evolutionary biology. Although the analogy between biology and economics has been noted before, it has rarely focused on clarifying the micro-macro distinction in economic theory and modelling. The macroevolution controversy in biology has generate...

On microfoundations of the city

This paper considers the spatial structure of a city subject to …nal demand and vertical linkages. Individuals consume di¤erentiated goods (or services) and …rms purchase di¤erentiated inputs (or services) in product (or service) markets where …rms compete under monopolistic competition. Workers rent their residential lots in an urban land market and contribute to the production of di¤erentiate...

The Microfoundations of the Keynesian Multiplier Process

The Microfoundations of Macroeconomics: An Evolutionary Perspective

Implicit Microfoundations for Macroeconomics

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 th...