Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy

This book brings together Professor Arthur’s pioneering article and provide a comprehensive presentation of his exciting vision of an economics that incorporates increasing returns. After a decade of resistance from economists, these ideas are now being widely discussed and adopted, as Kenneth Arrow recounts in his foreword. In fundamental ways they are changing our views of the working economy.

“. . . this beautifully written collection of essays represents one of the fundamental contributions to economic science in the last two decades." - Complexity "Arthur has the analytic skills, academic training, and courage to present convincingly his rich ideas that are almost heretical to the neoclassical economic tradition. This book could make a dramatic impact on the thinking of all regional scientists, an will occupy a prominent and accessible location on their shelves." - Journal of Regional Science”

. . . this beautifully written collection of essays represents one of the fundamental contributions to economic science in the last two decades." —Complexity

"Arthur has the analytic skills, academic training, and courage to present convincingly his rich ideas that are almost heretical to the neoclassical economic tradition. This book could make a dramatic impact on the thinking of all regional scientists, an will occupy a prominent and accessible location on their shelves." —Journal of Regional Science

W. Brian Arthur is an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute and a Visiting Researcher at PARC (Palo Alto Research Center). Formerly he was Morrison Professor of Economics and Population Studies at Stanford University. One of the pioneers of complexity theory, he also formulated the influential "theory of increasing returns," which offered a paradigm-changing explanation of why some high-tech companies achieve breakaway success. Former director of PARC John Seeley Brown has said of him, "Hundreds of millions of dollars slosh around Silicon Valley every day based on Arthur's ideas." Arthu

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