Two-Population Social Cycle Theories

Callahan, Gene and Hoffmann, Andreas (2015): Two-Population Social Cycle Theories.

Abstract

Discerning family resemblances in the world of theories can be useful for several reasons. For one thing, noticing that two theories share the traits of a family of theories may help us to understand each of them better. Secondly, noticing the family resemblances may help us to model them more easily. In particular, the modern software development technique of object-oriented programming leverages family resemblances among different software “objects” to increase the ease of development, and so dovetails very well with the effort to pick out “families” on a more theoretical level. In this paper, we note the large family of two-population social cycle theories, all based on a pattern of disruptions and adjustments akin to the well-known predator-prey model.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: social cycle theory, predator-prey, Lotka-Volterra, business cycle theory, agent-based modeling
• Subjects: A - General Economics and Teaching > A1 - General Economics > A12 - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B3 - History of Economic Thought: Individuals > B31 - Individuals; B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B4 - Economic Methodology; E - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics > E3 - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles > E32 - Business Fluctuations ; Cycles

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