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Complexity and the Art of Public Policy: Solving Society’s Problems from the Bottom Up. By David Colander and Roland Kupers. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ and Oxford, UK, 2014. 310pp., $29.95. ISBN 987-0-691-15209-7.

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Notes

  1. Albert Einstein said “God does not play dice”.

  2. On complexity economics, see Arthur (1994) and Beinhocker (2006); on networks, see Jackson (2008); on agent-based modeling see Epstein (2006).

  3. For modeling approaches see Basu (2000), Bowles (2004) and Ferguson (2013). On relations to economic curricula, see Ferguson (2011).

  4. For example, the essays in Sabatier (2007), Baumgartner and Jones (1993) on punctuated equilibria in policymaking; Kingdon’s (2003) concept of policy emergence.

  5. While economists often avoid power (hard to formalize), complexity invites its consideration. Modern game theory provides modeling tools (see Basu 2000, chapter 6; Ferguson 2013, chapter 4).

  6. See Rossi et al. (2004); includes a chapter on social context.

  7. Adjustments for context depend on directions of inquiry.

  8. See Greif (2006) on self-reinforcing and self-undermining equilibria. See Watts (2002) on information cascades in networks and Ferguson (2013, chapters 11 and 12) on relations to punctuated equilibria and policy.

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  1. Grinnell College, Grinnell, USA

    William D. Ferguson

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  1. William D. Ferguson
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Correspondence to William D. Ferguson.

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Ferguson, W.D. Complexity and the Art of Public Policy: Solving Society’s Problems from the Bottom Up. By David Colander and Roland Kupers. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ and Oxford, UK, 2014. 310pp., $29.95. ISBN 987-0-691-15209-7.. Eastern Econ J 46, 521–524 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-020-00166-4

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