Three slices of Jay Forrester's general theory of economic behavior: An interpretation

摘要

This paper defines the unique contributions Jay Forrester made to economics through his system dynamics models that emphasize pursuit of operational goals in every day decisions rather than meeting the abstract criteria of rational expectations. In particular, the paper attempts to reconstruct his distinctive explanations of economic cycles over the course of his National Modeling Project, whose details appear in PhD theses, occasional papers, and internal records of the MIT system dynamics group but have not been published in a succinct form and are not widely known especially by the newer vintages of system dynamics practitioners.