From catastrophe to chaos : a general theory of economic discontinuities

**'**Those who teach mathematical economics, micro, macro, trade, or regional will find this book a valuable source of interesting examples together with references for further.**'****Journal of Economic Literature** 30 1992 "Now, however, weface an Age of Discontinuity in world economy and tech nology. We might succeed in making it an age of great economic growth as weil. But the one thing that is certain so far is that it will be a period of change-in technology and in economic policy, in industry structures and in economic theo ry, in the knowledge needed to govern and manage, and in economic issues. While we have been busy finishing the great nineteenth-century economic ed ijice, the foundations have shifted beneath our feet." Peter F. Drucker, 1968 The A~e Qf DiscQntinuity, p. 10 This project has had a lQng gestatiQn period, probably ultimately dating to a YQuthful QbsessiQn with watershed divides and bQundaries. My awareness Qf the problem Qf discQntinuity in eCQnQmics dates tQ my first enCQunter with the capi tal theQry paradQxes in the late 1960s, the fruits Qf which can be seen in Chapter 8 Qf this book. This awareness led tQ a frostratiQn Qver the apparent lack Qf a mathematics Qf discQntinuity, a lack that was in the process of rapidly being QverCQme at that time Front Matter....Pages i-xi Discontinuity in Economic Theory and Economic Discontinuities....Pages 1-5 The Mathematics of Discontinuity....Pages 7-35 Discontinuities in Microeconomic Systems....Pages 37-55 Speculative Bubbles and Crashes I: Irrational....Pages 57-71 Speculative Bubbles and Crashes II: Rational and Semi-Rational....Pages 73-95 Catastrophe Theory in Macroeconomics....Pages 97-105 Chaos Theory and Macroeconomics....Pages 107-124 Discontinuity and Capital Theory....Pages 125-145 Discontinuous Evolution of Urban Historical Forms....Pages 147-171 Discontinuities in Intraurban Systems....Pages 173-194 Morphogenesis of Regional Systems....Pages 195-217 Perspectives on Economic and Ecologic Evolution....Pages 219-232 Ecosystems and Economics....Pages 233-259 The Limits to Growth and Global Catastrophe Revisited....Pages 261-271 Instability and Volatility of Foreign Exchange Rates....Pages 273-307 The Discontinuous World Economy....Pages 309-317 Summary and Conclusions: Leaping Across the Abyss....Pages 319-328 Back Matter....Pages 329-402 ' Those who teach mathematical economics, micro, macro, trade, or regional will find this book a valuable source of interesting examples together with references for further. ' Journal of Economic Literature 30 1992