Book Description
The leading authority on system dynamics explains this approach to organizational problem solving, emphasizing simulation models to understand issues such as fluctuating sales, market growth and stagnation, the reliability of forecasts and the rationality of business decision-making. The CD includes modeling software from Vensim, ithink, and PowerSim.
Customer Reviews:
Excelent book.......2007-10-17
This book is really impressive. Is an eye opener. Must read for Industrial Engineering Students, must have for professors and great addition for a professional looking for new ideas.
One of the best SD books with connection to practical work.......2007-10-06
"Business Dynamics" is a great book leading the newcomer -as myself- into the field of SD and the experienced system dynamicist can use it as a knowledge pool.
Even though the book is rather expensinve -and heavy alike- it covers great wisdom of John Sterman (he is by the way a scholar of the founder of the field, Jay W. Forrester) and is more than worthwhile buying if you are strongly interested in the field.
I was lucky to meet John and Jay this summer during a specific SD workshop at MIT and the yearly System Dynamics Society Conference and could chat with both of them (they are both very practicably using SD with a strong academic background). Learning and getting more experienced in System Dynamics and the use for daily problem solving is a dynamic and evolving process of wisdom with lots of feedback ("Business Dynamics" can help a lot in getting deeper insights.
Best regards
Ralf
Excellent.......2007-08-29
Excellent guide to systems thinking, clear examples, clear thinking and very interesting conclusions reached. highly recommended
buen libro.......2007-02-22
como parte de la materia lo llevo, me salio mas barato que en mexico y me es util para mi carrera
Amazing.......2007-01-12
The definitive book on Business dynamics !
It may look dificult to follow, but it isn`t really easy to read and follow !
The cd brings good examples.
Book Description
In a complex and uncertain world, humans and animals make decisions under the constraints of limited knowledge, resources, and time. Yet models of rational decision making in economics, cognitive science, biology, and other fields largely ignore these real constraints and instead assume agents with perfect information and unlimited time. About forty years ago, Herbert Simon challenged this view with his notion of "bounded rationality." Today, bounded rationality has become a fashionable term used for disparate views of reasoning.
This book promotes bounded rationality as the key to understanding how real people make decisions. Using the concept of an "adaptive toolbox," a repertoire of fast and frugal rules for decision making under uncertainty, it attempts to impose more order and coherence on the idea of bounded rationality. The contributors view bounded rationality neither as optimization under constraints nor as the study of people?s reasoning fallacies. The strategies in the adaptive toolbox dispense with optimization and, for the most part, with calculations of probabilities and utilities. The book extends the concept of bounded rationality from cognitive tools to emotions; it analyzes social norms, imitation, and other cultural tools as rational strategies; and it shows how smart heuristics can exploit the structure of environments.
Customer Reviews:
Human Rationality and Evolution.......2006-08-13
This edited volume is an important addition to the work on human decision-making under conditions of uncertainty, in which people use "rules of thumb" to produce cost-effective decisions that are not strictly "rational." From the psychological literature, the work of Kahneman and Tversky is well know (and has been rewarded with international recognition). However, they do not explicitly link such behavior (often referred to as "heuristics") to evolution and biology. And they tend to define these "rules of thumb" as rather poor guides to decision making.
The essays in this edited volume provide a different--and more optimistic picture--of such heuristics. The contributors provide evidence and logic to suggest that evolution has led to the development of decision making shortcuts that "work" reasonably well.
One can disagree with certain aspects of this work (they may be a bit harsh on Kahneman and Tversky and their peers; they may be overly optimistic about some of the heuristics that they mention). Nonetheless, this work is a wonderful introduction to a literature on how humans actually think and decide--rather than relying on abstract conceptualizations often prevalent in the social sciences, including the simplistic "rational choice" theory ascendant in several social science disciplines. This book represents a welcome corrective to such perspectives.
State of the Art on Behavioral Choice Theory.......2001-09-20
Suppose we wanted to predict how an expert billiards player would hit a certain shot. We would measure the angles and distances, get the coefficients of elasticity of the balls and the bumpers, and we would solve a set of differential equations. But is that how the billiards player figures out what to do? Of course not! We don't know exactly what he would do, but if the authors of this book had their way, we'd give up on the differential equations (optimization theory) and find the "fast and frugal heuristic" actually used by the billiards player.
This book is the product of a conference of experts in the field. It includes wonderful contributions by the editors and their coworkers on how decisions are actually made, and argues persuasively that fast and frugal is almost as good as full optimization, and at much lower cost.
But the volume is a lot broader than that. It includes contributions on the role of emotions in decision-making (Dan Fessler), learning in animal societies (Keven Laland) and social insects (Thomas Seeley), and a lot of material on the role of culture in human societies (Boyd, Richerson, McCabe, Smith, Henrich, and others). This is important new material, very up to date.
Gigerenzter and Selten go to great lengths to cast aspersions on the old-fashioned "optimization subject to constraints" perspective, but their arguments are not persuasive. They make a category error: they maintain that models that use optimization assume that the agents the models describe use optimization. This is just silly. Just as the billiards player does not solve differential equations, decision-makers do not do complete optimization, even though we may use such models to describe their behavior.
The editors believe that optimization subject to constraints is dead in behavioral theory, but they're dead wrong. That's in fact what they are doing, but they prefer to call it "bounded rationality."
Finally, I should note that the work of Eduardo Zambrano (look up his home page) shows that the SEU (Subjective Expected Utility model---the enemy of all bounded rationalers) actually is behaviorally universal, in the sense that one can always find a set of Bayesian priors for which an observed set of behaviors is optimal.
But don't let these petty methodological issues get you down. The book is a great collection by the authors of major work in behavioral theory.
Book Description
In Deliberative Environmental Politics, Walter Baber and Robert Bartlett link political theory with the practice of environmental politics, arguing that the "deliberative turn" in democratic theory presents an opportunity to move beyond the policy stalemates of interest group liberalism and offers a foundation for reconciling rationality, strong democracy, and demanding environmentalism. Deliberative democracy, which presumes that the essence of democracy is deliberation -- thoughtful and discursive public participation in decision making -- rather than voting, interest aggregation, or rights, has the potential to produce more environmentally sound policy decisions and a more ecologically rational form of environmental governance.
Baber and Bartlett defend deliberative democracy's relevance to environmental politics in the twenty-first century against criticisms from other theorists. They critically examine three major models for deliberative democracy -- those of John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and advocates of full liberalism such as Amy Gutman, Dennis Thompson, and James Bohman -- and analyze the implications of each of these approaches for ecologically rational environmental politics as well as for institutions, citizens, experts, and social movements. In order to establish that democracy is ecologically sustainable and that environmental protection can (and must) become a norm of culture rather than a mere fact of government, they argue, new models of ecological deliberation and deliberative environmentalism are required.
Average customer rating:
|
Rationality and the Ideology of Disconnection (Contemporary Political Theory)
Michael Taylor
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
Politics
| Nonfiction
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
Social Science
| Nonfiction
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
General
| Nonfiction
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Bargain Books
| Stores
| Books
All Deals
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Blowout Books
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Theory
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Consciousness & Thought
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History & Theory
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Social Theory
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Doctrines
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy
ASIN: 0521687047 |
Book Description
A powerful and provocative critique of the foundations of Rational Choice theory and the economic way of thinking about the world, written by a former leading practitioner. The target is a dehumanizing ideology that cannot properly recognize that normal people have attachments and commitments to other people and to practices, projects, principles, and places, which provide them with desire-independent reasons for action, and that they are reflective creatures who think about what they are and what they should be, with ideals that can shape and structure the way they see their choices. The author’s views are brought to bear on the economic way of thinking about the natural environment and on how and when the norm of fair reciprocity motivates us to do our part in cooperative endeavors. Throughout, the argument is adorned by thought-provoking examples that keep what is at stake clearly before the reader’s mind.
Book Description
The question addressed in this challenging new book is: What binds societies together and prevents them from disintegrating into chaos and war? Elster analyzes two concepts of social order: stable, predictable patterns of behavior, and cooperative behavior. The book examines various aspects of collective action and bargaining from the perspective of rational choice theory and the theory of social norms. It is a fundamental assumption of the book that social norms provide an important kind of motivation for action that is irreducible to rationality.
Customer Reviews:
Another Junk work for this professor to put on his resume .......2007-08-24
This is a sociology book thats written in dense, deliberately wordy, intended to used on this professors resume to impress employers who probably wouldn't read the book rather flip through it and read a paragraph or two and come to the conclusion that "oh this is technical, he must be very smart", no doubt. Having read this book I can say its junk. Its hard to read and the points the author makes are trivial. Its one of those books you'll only find stashed away in a college library, never to be used or referenced by anyone. 287 pages of paper wasted. Don't waste you're money. It's an expense waste of money.
Average customer rating:
|
Rationality, Bounded Rationality and Microfoundations: Foundations of Theoretical Economics
Reza Salehnejad
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Macroeconomics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Microeconomics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Theory
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Behavioral Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0230004806
Release Date: 2007-01-23 |
Book Description
New classical economics makes three assumptions to explain economic phenomena. Firstly, people solve their decision problems by following the prescriptions of the expected utility theory. Secondly, people behave like econometricians in learning the structure of the environment and predicting economic events. And thirdly, the general forms of the laws of economics are the same in case of the individual and the economy. This book challenges these hypotheses, explaining why the expected utility theory, even if it were true, fails to be of much help in solving economic controversies. It goes on to demonstrate why there can be no theory of statistical learning and why therefore the proposal that homo economicus behaves like a statistician falls a long way short of helping us understand the dynamics of the economy. Finally the book brings to the fore the complexities that behavioural heterogeneity and interaction create for the connection between the micro and macro levels in the economy. These complexities lend strong support to atheoretical macroeconomics.
Book Description
Psychologists and economists often ask similar questions about human behaviour. This volume brings together contributions from leaders in both disciplines. The editorial introduction discusses methodological differences between the two which have until now limited the development of mutually beneficial lines of research. Psychologists have objected to what they see as an excessive formalism in economic modelling and an unrealistic degree of sophistication in the behaviour of individuals, while economists criticize the absence of a general psychological framework into which most results can be fitted and the lack of welfare implications in their theories. The editors encourage scholars to exploit the strengths of each discipline - the ability of psychologists to understand the feelings and motivation of individuals; and the experience of economists to develop normative frameworks. The editors then highlight the links between the contributions by grouping them according to central themes in the study of rationality and well-being: 1. The causes and consequences of 'irrational behaviour'; 2. The role of anticipatory feelings and imperfect self-knowledge on decision-making; 3. The way in which memory of past events and cost of thinking affect current decisions; 4. The interaction between anticipated and remembered utility and its effects on the welfare of individuals; 5. Experimental practice on how to perform controlled experiments to test hypotheses. This exciting volume provides an excellent point of entry for anyone interested in the interface between economics and psychology.
Customer Reviews:
Serious Attempt to Join Psychology and Economics.......2006-02-16
This is the first of two volumes of papers by very prominent economists and psychologists with the aim of developing a better model of the relationship between choice and welfare than either discipline currently possesses. The book is sufficiently important that I will comment separately on the various chapters, returning to this review to edit periodically, as I go through the book.
The first chapter, by Roy F. Baumeister, explains why people make choices that are "irrational," in the sense of not contributing to their well-being. The economist will note that we do not use the term "irrational" for this phenomenon. Rather, "irrational" in economics means lacking consistent preferences. There is a tendency for psychologists to use the term anyway they please, and indeed, economists are generally no more coherent in their use of the term. I have given up on the term "rational" altogether for this reason. For instance, in this review I will refer to the rational actor model as the Beliefs, Preferences, and Constraints (BPC) model. This chapter may be useful for a novice, but it is analytically weak and excessively general. It includes really incorrect assertions, such as "A rational being should by definition pursue enlightened self-interest." (p. 3). This consigns altruistic and virtuous (e.g., truth-telling) activity to irrationality, which is a mistake. Consistent with this, the author suggests that self-destructive activities should emphasize tradeoffs and counterproductive strategies. Aside from the lack of analytical clarity of these phenomena, they again exclude critical choice forms, such as acting out of obligation, keeping promises, and sacrificing for one's family and society.
The second chapter, by Kent C. Berridge, has a fine description of the neurological basis for the difference between "decision" and "experienced" utility, but hooked up to a completely naïve understanding of the economists' BPC model. Like other psychologists in this book, he therefore ends up not adjudicating economics and psychology, but denying economic theory altogether. This, by the way, is common among psychologists, who appear to love to describe behavior as "irrational" as a way to win brownie points in a disciplinary battle with economics. It should not have been tolerated by the editors of this book, because it is destructive of the project of developing a unified model of the individual decision-maker. In this case, Berridge considers and experiment where subjects are given subliminal visual cues that are either "happy" or "angry", verifies that subjects were not aware of the cues and their self-reported emotional state was not effected. However, those shown the "happy" cues preferred more of a sweet soft drink than those shown the "angry" cues. Berridge holds that this is "irrational." It is no such thing. Human choice depends on preferences, beliefs and constraints. Preferences are a function of the state of the individual, and hence are not unchanging. Hunger, thirst, sexual drive, previous consumption history, and a host of other parameters affect choice. Moreover, most of our mental activity is not available to our consciousness, so whether we are aware of our current state or not is quite irrelevant. Burridge's argument is thus symptomatic of the psychologist's inability to deal maturely with economic theory, in a way that could produce a unified model. This is a fine paper if you start with section 3.
The third chapter, by the prominent behavioral economist George Loewenstein and well-known coauthors, argues that the pursuit and assessment of happiness can be self-defeating. This is quite correct, of course. For instance, if I constantly ask myself if the music I'm listening to is good or bad, I cannot really enjoy it. Similarly, hard work, honesty, and self-sacrifice might produce more happiness than attempting always to stimulate the pleasure centers. Much interesting material is presented here. However, the authors go to great lengths to alienate economists, making absurd statements whose sole value is to dump on economic theory. For instance, they hold that "ordinal" utility theory is a mistake, and we should return to Bentham's "cardinal" utility of pleasure and pain. In fact, individual choice deviates consistently and profoundly from pleasure maximization, and it is a great step forward for economics to recognize this over the past half-century. Experienced utility is very important, but it is not a superior theory to the BPC model, which takes the relationship between choice and welfare as an empirical problem to be unraveled. Of course, the authors know this, but they cannot resist making absurd statements whose sole value is to piss off most economists.
More to come...
Book Description
The quest for freedom from hunger and repression has triggered in recent years a worldwide movement toward political democracy and economic rationality. Never have so many people experimented with democratic institutions. At the same time, traditional strategies of economic development have collapsed in Eastern Europe and Latin America and entire economic systems are being transformed on both continents. What should we expect in the countries that venture on the paths to democracy and markets? Will these transitions result in democracies or in new dictatorships? What economic system, new or old, will emerge? This major book analyzes recent events in Eastern Europe and Latin America, focusing on transitions to democracy and market-oriented economic reforms. The author underscores the interdependence of political and economic transformations and draws on extensive local data as part of his analysis. A distinctive feature of the book is that it employs models derived from politics, economics, and game theory. This book will be of particular interest to scholars and graduate students in political science and sociology.
Customer Reviews:
Best political economy.......2006-06-16
I read this book in 1995 and I have never found a better one in analyzing democratization since then. His idea on democracy as a result of "spontaneous compliance" is so powerful that nothing else can actually stimulate more on a research direction for the preconditions of democratization process in countries like China.
It can be read together with his "Democracy and the Rule of Law", which addresses the question of why governments act or do not act according to laws, and interprets the rule of law as a strategic choice of actors with powerful interests (rather than as an exogenous constraint on politicians), and concludes that the rule of law emerges when no group is strong enough to dominate the others and political actors seek to resolve their conflicts by recourse to law.
Unfortunately, Adam Przeworski is later on obsessed with math, statistics, graphs, and aggregate analysis instead going deeper into specific political culture, which is yet another sad example of how mathematical academics continues to ruin more economists and political scientists (States and Markets: A Primer in Political Economy, 2003). The point is, applied mathematics and statistics concern with correlation, social scientists concern with causation. Mathematics and statistics are good tools, but social scientists are not technicians. If all they can do is applying mathematics and statistics without institutional analysis or policy analysis, they are in a wrong career.
Excellent book.......1999-09-07
Adam Przeworski is one of the top five political scientists of the world. "Democracy and the Market" is amazing and should be read by everybody that wants to know why democracies last (or don't). Przeworski is probably one of the few writers that compare the situation in East Europe with the situation in Latin America. And he does it perfectly. A bit technical at times but a very contemporary work of Political Science. A must buy.
Sophisticated, profound, and interesting!!!!.......1999-06-21
Przeworski's writing is always penetrating. This is the best work that I've ever read in the literature of political economy and comparative politics. Although his approach is too much immersed in rational-choice, he knows the history of political philosophy. Although he is basically a Marx-oriented scholar, he correctly understand what neo-classical theories are lacking. Adam Przeworki is a rare intellectual who combine science with philosophy.
is worth buying and worth reading although somehow technical.
Average customer rating:
|
Barriers and Bounds to Rationality
Peter Albin
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Econometrics
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Theory
| Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Research
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0691026769 |
Book Description
Peter Albin is known for his seminal work in applying the concepts of adaptive dynamical systems, first developed by biologists and physicists, to the study of economic systems. This book is a collection of his pathbreaking articles on the application of cellular automata and complexity theory to economic problems. Duncan Foley provides a thoughtful introduction in which he reviews the disparate analytical sources of Albin's work in the theories of nonlinear dynamical systems, economic dynamics, cellular automata, linguistic and computational complexity, and bounded rationality.
Albin has analyzed economic systems as interactions of highly complex components (i.e., intelligent human beings). He uses the theories of generative linguistics and cellular automata to establish that the complexity level of economic systems is, in principle at least, that of a Turing machine or general-purpose computer, establishing that classic economic approaches to the problems of household and firm choice, macroeconomic prediction, and policy evaluation may give rise to undecidable propositions and uncomputable functions. He develops simple models of dynamic economic interaction based on cellular automata which illustrate the inherent complexity of economic interactions and the resulting challenge they pose to traditional theories of rational economic behavior. These models explore the dynamics of the business cycle, decentralized market trading, and the emergence of cooperation in a novel local-interaction version of the repeated prisoners' dilemma game. Albin's work provides a unique and important perspective on economic systems.
Book Description
The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Herbert Simon in 1978. At Carnegie-Mellon University he holds the title of Professor of Computer Science and Psychology. These two facts together delineate the range and uniqueness of his contributions in creating meaningful interactions among fields that developed in isolation but that are all concerned with human decision-making and problem-solving processes.
In particular, Simon has brought the insights of decision theory, organization theory (especially as it applies to the business firm), behavior modeling, cognitive psychology, and the study of artificial intelligence to bear on economic questions. This has led not only to new conceptual dimensions for theoretical constructions, but also to a new humanizing realism in economics, a way of taking into account and dealing with human behavior and interactions that lie at the root of all economic activity.
The sixty papers and essays contained in these two volumes are grouped under eight sections, each with a brief introductory essay. These are: Some Questions of Public Policy, Dynamic Programming Under Uncertainty; Technological Change; The Structure of Economic Systems; The Business Firm as an Organization; The Economics of Information Processing; Economics and Psychology; and Substantive and Procedural Reality.
Most of Simon's papers on classical and neoclassical economic theory are contained in volume one. The second volume collects his papers on behavioral theory, with some overlap between the two volumes.
The second edition of Simon's widely read and referenced The Sciences of the Artificial was published by The MIT Press 1981 and is available in both hardcover and paperback.
Books:
- Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal
- Catholic Ethic And The Spirit Of Capitalism
- Charging Ahead: The Growth and Regulation of Payment Card Markets
- Choice and Consequence
- Climate Change 1995: Economic and Social Dimensions of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- Cognitive Development and Learning in Instructional Contexts (2nd Edition)
- Design for Six Sigma for Green Belts and Champions: Applications for Service Operations--Foundations, Tools, DMADV, Cases, and Certification (Six Sigma)
- Dynamic General Equilibrium Modelling: Computational Methods and Applications
- Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets, Update (7th Edition) (Addison-Wesley Series in Economics)
- Exceeding Customer Expectations: What Enterprise, America's #1 car rental company, can teach you about creating lifetime customers
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box
- An Introduction to Stochastic Processes with Biology Applications
- Cardiopulmonary Critical Care
- Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community
- Making Diversity Work: Seven Steps for Defeating Bias in the Workplace
- Immaculate Reception: A Madeline Bean Catering Mystery
- Van Cleef & Arpels
- Blur: The Making of Nothing
- Botanical classifications;: A comparison of eight systems of angiosperm classification,
Systems Thinking, Second Edition: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture
Systems Thinking Basics: From Concepts to Causal Loops
An Introduction to General Systems Thinking (Silver Anniversary Edition)
The Manager's Pocket Guide to Systems Thinking and Learning
Dynamic Modeling for Business Management: An Introduction (Modeling Dynamic Systems)
