At a session during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, SFI External Professor W. Brian Arthur offered insights about the impact of technologies that have the ability to disrupt economic systems.
The January 25 session, "The future of economics," explored how major changes in theory and in practice are driving the rehabilitation of economics.
Arthur, an economist and visiting researcher at Intelligent Systems Lab at PARC, joined panelists and fellow economists Peter Diamond (MIT), Robert Shiller (Yale), Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia), and moderator Martin Wolf, associate editor and chief economics commentator of the Financial Times.
Read Wolf's take on the session in his Financial Times post (January 26, 2012)
The panel explored the complexity of navigating a phenomenon constructed and driven by innately flawed, irrational beings. It touched on how orthodox economics had crept from science to cult status and the need for a diversity of economic models. Panelists also discussed benefits to studying causes of inequality, the economics of happiness, and the importance of culture among other fresh aspects to broaden economic understanding.
More about the World Economic Forum session
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