"In many parts of the economy, stabilizing forces appear not to operate. Instead, positive feedback magnifies the effects of small economic shifts; the economic models that describe such effects differ vastly from the conventional ones. Diminishing returns imply a single equilibrium point for the economy, but positive feedback – increasing returns – makes for many possible equilibrium points. There is no guarantee that the particular economic outcome selected from among the many alternatives will be the “best” one."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
People from BelfastSystems scientistsGame theoristsStanford University facultyEconomists from Northern Ireland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 1: Chapter 1. Positive feedback in economics
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Brian_Arthur
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
W. Brian Arthur
17 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by W. Brian Arthur →
Related Quotes
"Right after we published our first findings, we started getting letters from all over the country saying, "You know, …"
"Our understanding of how markets and businesses operate was passed down to us more than a century ago by a handful of…"
"Complexity theory is really a movement of the sciences. Standard sciences tend to see the world as mechanistic. That …"
"As we begin to understand , we begin to understand that we’re part of an ever-changing, interlocking, non-linear, kal…"
"A technology that by chance gains an early lead in adoption may eventually 'corner the market' of potential adopters,…"
"[Market outcomes] depends on the cumulation of random events."
"Where we observe the predominance of one technology or one economic outcome over its competitors we should thus be ca…"
"This paper has attempted to go beyond the usual static analysis of increasing-returns problems by examining the dynam…"
"The type of rationality we assume in economics — perfect, logical, deductive rationality — is extremely useful in gen…"
"The inductive-reasoning system I have described above consists of a multitude of “elements” in the form of belief-mod…"