The Origin of Wealth Seminars_Eric... · The Origin of Wealth Eric Beinhocker ... Complexity...
Transcript of The Origin of Wealth Seminars_Eric... · The Origin of Wealth Eric Beinhocker ... Complexity...
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The Origin of Wealth
Eric Beinhocker
McKinsey Global Institute
HEEDNet SeminarDEFRA 26 November 2007
Copyright © 2007 McKinsey & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
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“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.”
John Maynard Keynes
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Today’s discussion
• The three most stunning empirical facts in economics
• Characterizing the economy – what is it?
• The evolution of economic design
• What does it mean?
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Today’s discussion
• The three most stunning empirical facts in economics
• Characterizing the economy – what is it?
• The evolution of economic design
• What does it mean?
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Fact no. 1 – wealth has grown explosively
World GDP per capita, constant 1992 US$
Source: J. Bradford DeLong, U. Cal. Berkeley
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-15000 -10000 -5000 0 5000
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Fact no. 2 – complexity has grown explosively
102 SKU economy
From . . .
1010 SKU economy
To . . .
• Wal-Mart 100,000 SKUs• Cable TV 200+ channels
• 275 breakfast cereals
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Fact no. 3 – no one is in charge
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Today’s discussion
• The three most stunning empirical facts in economics
• Characterizing the economy – what is it?
• The evolution of economic design
• What does it mean?
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Traditional economics cannot explain key characteristics of the economy
Economy viewed as an equilibrium system . . .
. . . but such a system cannot
•Grow explosively
•Create novelty
•Spontaneously self-organize
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The accidental history of equilibrium in economics
Léon Walras William Stanley Jevons
THE ELEME
NTS
OF
STATICS
BY
LOUIS POI
NSOT
1803
TREATISE
ON
NATURAL
PHILOSOP
HY
BY
SIR WILLIA
M THOMPS
ON
AND
PETER GU
THRIE TAI
T
1867
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A different explanation – the economy is a ‘complex adaptive system’
Complex Adaptive System
Many interacting agents and organizations of
agents
Designs and strategies evolve over time
Macro patterns emerge from micro behavior
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Dynamics
Traditional – fixed point attractors
P
Q
S
D
Complexity – dynamic attractors
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Agents
Traditional – perfect rationality
• Deductive logic
• Self-interest
• Perfect information
• Infinite
computational power
• No errors, biases
• No learning
Complexity – realistic rationality
• Inductive rules of thumb
• Strong reciprocity
• Imperfect information
• Finite computing power
• Errors, biases
• Learning over time
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Networks
Traditional – networks don’t matter
• Interactions – only via markets
• Information – prices, quantities
• Institutions – Walrasian auctions
Complexity – network structures matter
• Interactions – via networks
• Information – anything
• Institutions – bilateral trade, posted prices, corporations, etc.
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Emergence
Traditional – assumes linear additivity
Macroeconomic behavior
Representative “super agent”
Individual agents
Time
Complexity – non-linear interactions create emergent patterns
H
O
H
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Evolution
Complexity – innovation as evolutionary search
Traditional – no endogenous theory of innovation
“Add successfully as many mail coaches as you please, you will
never get a railway thereby”
Joseph Schumpeter
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A paradigm shift
Traditional economics
DynamicsEconomies are closed, static, linear systems in equilibrium
AgentsHomogeneous agents• Only use rational deduction• Make no mistakes and have no
biases• Are already perfect, so why learn?
Networks
EmergenceTreats micro and macroeconomics as separate disciplines
Evolution
Complexity economics
Economies are open, dynamic, non-linear systems far from equilibrium
Heterogeneous agents• Mix deductive/inductive
decision-making• Subject to errors and biases• Learn and adapt over time
Explicitly account for agent-to-agent interactions and relationships
No distinction between micro- and macroeconomics; macro patterns emerge from micro behaviors and interactions
Evolutionary process creates novelty and growing order and complexity over time
Contains no endogenous mechanism for creating novelty or growth in order and complexity
Assume agents only interact indirectly through market mechanisms
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Today’s discussion
• The three most stunning empirical facts in economics
• Characterizing the economy – what is it?
• The evolution of economic design
• What does it mean?
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Long history of evolutionary ideas in economics (and vice versa)
•Malthus•Darwin•Mandeville•Marx•Spencer•Marshall•Menger•Veblen•Schumpeter•Hayek•Nelson and Winter
1838
1982
•Driven from a metaphor with biology
•Not built on a general computational view of evolution
Problem
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We are accustomed to thinking of evolution in a biological context
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Evolution is a search algorithm for ‘fit designs’
Repeat
Create a variety of experiments
Variation
Select designs that are ‘fit’
Selection
Amplify fit designs, de-amplify unfit designs
Amplification
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Evolution creates complexity from simplicity
Information World
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PhysicalWorld
Design encoded in a schema Interactor in an environment
Rendering of design
Feedback on fitness
Variation, selection,
amplification
EntropyOrder,
complexity
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Who designed the modern bicycle?
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The reality – evolution through ‘deductive-tinkering’
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Technologies evolve
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Economic evolution occurs in three ‘design spaces’
Physical technologies
Social technologies
Business plans
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Business plans are a form of economic ‘design’
• Strategy
–High-end microprocessors– Integrated chip sets–Communications
chips/components
• Physical technologies–Semiconductor design–Testing–Fabrication
• Social technologies– Innovation processes–Direct sales–Brand–Competitive culture
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Business plan evolution works at three levels
Individual minds Organizations Markets
Independent booksellers
A?E?D?
6?
A+C?
B+D+E?
A?
D?
C? E?
B?
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What would economic evolution look like?
•Bursts of innovation/ punctuated equilibrium
•Spontaneous self organization
•Decreasing local entropy/ increasing order
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Today’s discussion
• The three most stunning empirical facts in economics
• Characterizing the economy – what is it?
• The evolution of economic design
• What does it mean?
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The end of left vs. right?
Adam Smith Karl Marx
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A new view of human nature
Right Left Complexity
• Humans are inherently self-regarding
• Markets channel this instinct to positive social ends
• Hume, Locke, Hobbes
• Humans are inherently cooperative and altruistic
• Markets encourage greed, state can make society more just
• Rousseau, Marx
• Humans are conditional cooperators and altruistic punishers
• Institutions should mobilize strong reciprocity
• Bowles, Gintis, Fehr, Boyd
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A new view of markets vs. states
Right Left Complexity
• Markets are most efficient mechanism for allocating resources
• States distort market outcomes thus state interference should be minimized
• Markets may be a necessary evil, but do not produce just outcomes
• States are an essential mechanism for ensuring social justice and protecting people from market failures
• Markets are not perfectly efficient at allocation, but are highly effective at evolutionary wealth creation
• States create institutional conditions for economic evolution
• Democratic societies have a right to use states to shape economic fitness function
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New approaches to public policy?
• Giving up the illusion of prediction and control
• Realistic view of human behavior
• Focus on creating institutional conditions for economic evolution
• Evolving portfolios of “policy experiments”?
• Emphasis on empiricism and data -do more of what works less of what doesn’t
Example issues
• Healthcare reform
• Environmental policy
• Pensions
• Tax policy
• Education
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Final thought…
“Evolution is cleverer than we are”
Orgels’ second law
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