The Economy as a Complex Adaptive System

This chapter argues that the economic system is best perceived as a complex adaptive system, and as such, the traditional analytical methods of economics are not optimal for its study. Agent-based computational economics (ACE) studies the economic system from the bottom up and recognizes interaction between autonomous agents as the central mechanism in generating the self-organizing features of economic systems. Besides a discussion of this new economic methodology, a short how-to introduction is given, and the problem of constraining economics as a science within the ACE approach is raised. It is argued that ACE should be perceived as a new methodological approach to the study of economic systems rather than a new approach to economics, and that the use of ACE should be anchored in existing economic theory.