The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics

Living Edition
| Editors: Palgrave Macmillan

Chaotic Dynamics in Economics

  • Jess Benhabib
Living reference work entry
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2190-1
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Abstract

A new literature in the 1980s studied the possibility that endogenous cycles and irregular chaotic dynamics resembling stochastic fluctuations could be generated by deterministic, equilibrium models of the economy, in particular in overlapping generations models and in models with infinitely lived representative agents. Other empirical studies attempted to identify whether various economic time series were generated by deterministic chaotic dynamics or stochastic fluctuations. While dynamic equilibrium models calibrated to standard parameter values can generate chaotic dynamics and endogenous cycles even under intertemporal arbitrage and without market frictions, definitive empirical evidence for chaos in economics has not yet been produced.

Keywords

Arbitrage Chaos Chaotic dynamics in economics Endogenous cycles Equilibrium cycles Ergodic chaos Intertemporal arbitrage Overlapping generations model 

JEL Classifications

D85 
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jess Benhabib
    • 1
  1. 1.