Standard macroeconomics, based on a reductionist approach centered on the representative agent, is badly equipped to explain the empirical evidence where heterogeneity and industrial dynamics are the rule. In this paper we show that a simple agent-based model of heterogeneous financially fragile...

The restrictive assumptions imposed by the traditional methods of aggregation prevented so far a sound analysis of complex system of feedback between microeconomic variables and macroeconomic outcomes. This issue seems to be crucial in macroeconomic modelling, in particular for the analysis of...

In this paper, extending the framework originally put forward by Greenwaldand Stiglitz (1988, 1990, 1993), we have developed a theoretical framework in which the financial conditions affect the capital accumulation decisions of the firm. In contrast to Greenwald and Stiglitz we allow for an...

In macroeconomic models with financial constraints (see, for instance, Greenwald and Stiglitz, 1993; Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist,1998; Kiyotaki and Moore,1997) firms' supply decisions depend upon the degree of financial robustness/fragility, which is identifed and measured in different ways. In the...

In this paper, we model an agent-based economy in which heterogeneous agents (firms and a bank) interact in the financial markets. The heterogeneity is due to the balance sheet conditions and to size. In our simulations, at the aggregate level, output displays changes in trend and volatility...

The representation of the economic system, from a complexity perspective, focuses on interactions among heterogeneous agents in conditions of uncertainty. Heterogeneity entails asymmetric reactions to shocks and, through interaction mechanisms and feedback loops at micro, macro and meso level,...