Conference: Complexity and Macroeconomics Competition Winner Announcement

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rebuilding-macroeconomics-complexity-prize-seminar-tickets-153773595965 

Introduction:

Dr Angus Armstrong, Director, Rebuilding Macroeconomics

Presentations:

- Sebastian Poledna, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis:  Economic Forecasting with an Agent-based Model

- Valentina Semenova, University of Oxford: Reddit’s Self-Organised Bull Runs

- Anton  Pichler, University of Oxford: In and out of lockdown: Propagation of  supply and demand shocks in a dynamic input-output model

Discussion

‘Rebuilding Macroeconomics’ is a four-year project, funded by the  Economic and Social Research Council and hosted by the National  Institute of Economic and Social Research to construct a research  network promoting interdisciplinary approaches to the study of  macroeconomics, and to make recommendations for the future direction of  research in this area.

Within our remit, we were asked to review  incentives in academic macroeconomics. We chose to experiment with  different structures of research calls and review processes. We also  decided to see what the response might be to a research competition to  complement our research calls. This competition is the outcome of that  experiment.

By complexity macroeconomics we mean a system in  which agents interact directly with each other with more realistic  decision making to understand how the macroeconomy evolves over time. We  asked for innovative papers that offer insight into our understanding  of the macroeconomy beyond that which is possible using standard methods  of economic analysis.

Despite some delay caused by Covid-19, we  received 26 entries the vast majority of which were to a very high  standard. We asked three widely respected experts in complexity  economics, none of whom have any role in our project, to help us judge  the winners. The criteria for selecting the winning papers include  originality, importance of the insight to our understanding of the  macroeconomy and quality of exposition.

We look forward to  presentations from the winners of the competition with an opportunity to  discuss with the authors how they see complexity science contributing  to our understanding of the macroeconomy.