Claudius Gräbner

Europa-Universität Flensburg · Department of Pluralist Economics

This article explores whether the EU’s new economic development model of competitive sustainability could serve as a blueprint for ecologically sustainable development models for advanced economies in general. To this end, we first discuss theoretically the interplay between competitiveness and sustainability and identify several challenges for com...

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This paper explores whether the EU’s new economic development model of ‘competitive sustainability’ could serve as a role model for ecologically sustainable development models for advanced economies in general. To this end, we first discuss theoretically the interplay between ‘competitiveness’ and ‘sustainability’ and identify several challenges fo...

This paper analyzes the emergence of internal debtor-creditor relationships within a monetary union. We develop a stock-flow consistent model consisting of three regions – North, South, and the Rest of the World (RoW) –, where North and South form a monetary union. We show how the simultaneous presence of investment booms, declining export performa...

By studying the factors underlying differences in trade performance across European economies, this paper derives six different “trade models” for 22 EU countries and explores their developmental and distributional dynamics. We first introduce a typology of trade models by clustering countries on the basis of four key dimensions of trade performanc...

We study the functioning of informal value transfer systems through the example of Hawala. By complementing the institutional theory with computational experiments that use the first agent-based model of IVTS, we examine the roles of generalized trust and social control for the emergence, stability, and efficiency of Hawala. We show that both trust...

This paper studies the conceptualization and quantification of ‘competitiveness’ within the main policy coor- dination framework of the EU, the European Semester. This topic warrants attention since ‘competitiveness’ is not only of central importance in the European policy discourse, but also a theoretically ambiguous and malleable concept with con...

Decline and break-up of institutionalized cooperation, at all levels, has occurred frequently. Some of its concomitants, such as international migration, have become topical in the globalized world. Aspects of the phenomenon have also become known as failing states. However, the focus in most social sciences has been on institutional emergence and...

The accumulation of new technological capabilities is of high empirical relevance, both for the development of countries and the business success of firms. This paper aims to delineate strategies for the consideration of processes of capability accumulation in comprehensive macroeconomic models. It comprises a methodological discussion about the pr...

This paper studiesthe relevance of productheterogeneity and relatedness for the accumulation ofcapabilities in firms, as well as their implications for innovation dynamics. The existing literature has produced extensive evidence on the relevance of capability accumulation for innovation processes. Yet, an assessment of prior attempts to model these...

This paper discusses the actual relevance and historical origins or ‘competition universalism’. In economics, competition is conceptualized as a nearly ubiquitous element of societies, or, at least, used to study a wide array of social and political relations, including competition between firms for market shares, between individuals for prestige,...

This paper analyses the impact of technological capabilities on convergence. While looking at the relevance of differences in technological capabilities has a long tradition in economics when it comes to explaining persistent deviations in income, we provide econometric tests on the role of technology in determining convergence outcomes in a growth...

This paper introduces a framework to facilitate an interdisciplinary analysis of ‘competition’. While such an interdisciplinary analysis can be justified by referencing the various fields of social and economic life in which ‘competition’ is important, three challenges are found to aggravate such endeavor. To mitigate these challenges, and to expli...

This paper analyzes the dynamics of structural polarization and macroeconomic divergence in the context of European integration, where the latter is primarily understood as an increase in economic and financial openness. In the process of estimating the dynamic effects of such an openness shock on 26 EU countries, we develop a taxonomy of European...

Competition is at the core of economics, being both a central concept of economic reasoning and a main prerequisite for economic action. Yet, the attempt of a clear definition of competition is challenging as the concept of competition has been used in different historical and disciplinary contexts. This paper provides an analytical and historical...

This paper starts with an evaluation of three common arguments against pluralism in economics: (1) the claim that economics is already pluralist, (2) the argument that if there was the need for greater plurality, it would emerge on its own, and (3) the assertion that pluralism means ‘anything goes’ and is, thus, unscientific. Pluralist responses to...

This paper surveys measures of economic openness, the latter being understood as the degree to which non-domestic actors can or do participate in a domestic economy. Based on the existing literature, the authors introduce a typology of openness indicators, which distinguishes between ‘real’ and ‘financial’ openness as well as ‘de-facto’ and ‘de-jur...

This paper investigates the emergence of polarisation patterns in the EU during the last 60 years from a structuralist and complexity economics perspective. Based on the results, feasible opportunities for EU policy-making, which aim to counteract a tendency of polarization, are delineated. The study comprises of a historical analysis of the polit...

This paper discusses the uneven consequences of the macroeconomic fallout from the Coronavirus and related economic policy responses against the background of an analysis of longer-term macroeconomic divergence in the Eurozone. We show that the macroeconomic impact of the Corona crisis is estimated to be more severe in Southern Eurozone countries t...

This paper discusses the uneven consequences of the macroeconomic fallout from the coronavirus and related economic policy responses against the background of an analysis of longer-term macroeconomic divergence in the Eurozone. We show that the macroeconomic impact of the Corona crisis is estimated to be more severe in Southern Eurozone countries t...

The accumulation of new technological capabilities is of high empirical relevance, both for the development of countries and the business success of firms. In this paper, we aim to delineate strategies how these processes of capability accumulation can be considered more accurately in comprehensive macroeconomic models. To this end, we conduct an i...

The paper studies the relevance of product heterogeneity for innovation dynamics using an agent-based model. The vantage point is a short a review on the empirical relevance of capability accumulation for innovation processes and an assessment of how these processes are modelled theoretically in evolutionary micro and macroeconomic models. This sho...

This paper analyses macroeconomic developments in the Eurozone since its inception in 1999. In doing so, we document a process of divergence and polarisation among those countries that joined the Eurozone during its first two years. We find evidence for a 'core-periphery' pattern among Eurozone countries, that is, however, marked by substantial het...

The assertion that competition as a core concept of economic reasoning has started to expand into ever more fields of society as a prime mode of social organization and for designing social institutions has been made in different fields of academic literature. Yet, the attempt of a clear definition of competition is challenging as the concept of co...

We study the relationship between per-capita income and income inequality with a heterogeneous panel co-integration approach. We extend previous studies in two respects: first, we compile a more extensive data set for 87 countries over 26-58 years and consider measures for both pre-tax and post-tax income inequality; second, we take into account co...

This study discusses the challenges that economic policy-makers in Europe have to cope with, in order to ensure an economically prosperous and institutionally stable community of Member States of the European Union (EU). At the analytical level, we not only document a process of multi-dimensional polarisation of EU countries, but also link the exis...

Diese Studie diskutiert die Herausforderungen, denen sich die wirtschaftspolitischen Akteure in Europa stellen müssen, um eine wirtschaftlich prosperierende und institutionell stabile Gemeinschaft der Mitgliedsländer der Europäischen Union (EU) sicherzustellen. Auf analytischer Ebene dokumentieren wir nicht nur den Prozess einer multi-dimensionalen...

By studying the factors underlying differences in trade performance across European economies, this paper derives six different "trade models" for 22 EU-countries and explores their developmental and distributional implications. We first introduce a typology of trade models by clustering countries based on four key dimensions of trade performance:...

What determines the realisticness of a model? It is argued that to come up with an account of model realisticness that can answer this question, one has to make strong philosophical commitments to an account of representation, an account of model-world comparisons as well as the ontology of models and their targets. Without such commitments it is n...

We argue that building agent-based and equation-based versions of the same theoretical model is a fruitful way of developing rigorous and powerful complementary insights into real-world questions. We use the epistemological concept of “models as isolations and surrogate systems” (MISS) as the philosophical underpinning of this argument. In particul...

This paper provides a taxonomy and evaluation of five common arguments against pluralism in economics: (1) the claim that economics is already pluralist, (2) the argument that if there was the need for greater plurality, it would emerge on its own, (3) the assertion that pluralism means ‘anything goes’ and is thus unscientific, (4) the claim that e...

This paper surveys existing measures of economic openness understood as the degree to which non-domestic actors can or do participate in a domestic economy. We introduce a typology of openness indicators, which distinguishes between 'real' and 'financial' openness as well as between 'de facto' and 'de jure' measures of openness, and show that this...

Agent-based simulations have become increasingly prominent in various disciplines. This trend is positive, but it comes with challenges: while there are more and more standards for design, verification, validation, and presentation of the models, the various meta-theoretical strategies of how the models should be related to reality often remain imp...

This article illustrates the usefulness of computational methods for the investigation of institutions. As an example, we use a computational agent-based model to study the role of general trust and social control in informal value transfer systems (IVTS). We find that the terms of interaction between general trust and social control have an impact...

This paper analyzes the dynamics of structural polarization and macroeconomic convergence vs. divergence in the context of European integration, where the latter is understood primarily as an increase in economic and financial openness. In the process of estimating the dynamic effects of openness shocks on 26 EU countries, we develop a taxonomy of...

Today, we know that the overall network topology matters in several ways. However, we still face more questions than answers when it comes to network dynamics.This special issue contains a collection of papers that contribute to an in-depth understanding of two dimensions of network dynamics. On the one hand, a number of papers focus on the ‘dynami...

From the two premises that (1) economies are complex systems and (2) the accumulation of knowledge about reality is desirable, I derive the conclusion that pluralism with regard to economic research programs is a more viable position to hold than monism. To substantiate this claim an epistemological framework of how scholars study their objects o...

Mit der zunehmenden Digitalisierung und Vernetzung ökonomischerSysteme haben plattformbasierte Interaktionsbeziehungen stark anBedeutung gewonnen. Hier werden zwei oder mehr Nutzungsgruppendurch eine dritte Seite, die Plattform, zusammengebracht. Die Interaktionwird in solchen zweiseitigen Märkten von den Plattformbetreibernkontrolliert. Kreditkart...

From the two premises that (1) economies are complex systems and (2) the accumula- tion of knowledge about reality is desirable, I derive the conclusion that pluralism with regard to economic research programs is a more viable position to hold than monism. To substantiate this claim an epistemological framework of how scholars study their objects o...

This paper analyses economic developments in the Eurozone since its inception in 1999. In doing so, we document a process of economic divergence and polarization among those countries that joined the Eurozone during its first two years, which fits a typical ‘core – periphery’ pattern. We show how this polarization process first manifested in increa...

This chapter introduces a unifying approach to the micro-macro link in heterodox economics. The first section emphasizes the analytical problems that may arise from popular misunderstandings about the relationship of individual and aggregate level. This discussion illustrates why a thorough understanding of aggregation and aggregates in science is...

We study the functioning of informal value transfer systems (IVTS) through the example of Hawala. More precisely, using computational experiments we examine the roles of generalized trust and social control for the emergence, stability and efficiency of Hawala. Previous literature was ambiguous with regard to: (i) how trust and control should be op...

Analyzing economic systems from an evolutionary-institutional or a complexity perspective are two complementary approaches to economic inquiry. I discuss three arguments in favor of this hypothesis: (i) eminent institutional economists have examined the economy as what today could be considered a complex system; (ii) complexity economists lack meta...

Correction comment on the article ACEMOGLU, D. & ROBINSON, J. A. 2002. The Political Economy of the Kuznets Curve. Review of Development Economics, 6, 183-203.

I investigate the consistency of agent-based computational models with the institutionalist research program as outlined by Myrdal, Wilber and Harrison, Hodgson and others. In particular, I discuss whether such models can be a useful heuristic for ‘pattern modelling’: Can they provide a holistic, systemic and evolutionary perspective on the economy...

This theses introduces the idea of a symbiotic relationship between evolutionary-institutional and complexity economics. It consists of two major contributions: The first contribution focuses on how the emerging research program of complexity economics can benefit from evolutionary-institutional theory. I show that complexity economics still lacks...

We focus on the complementarity between original institutional economics, Mario Bunge’s framework of systemism, and the formal tools developed by complexity economists, especially in the context of agent-based modeling. We assert that original institutional economics might profit from exploiting this complementarity.

This paper is motivated by the observation that (1) socio-economic analysis uses significantly less formalisms than mainstream economics and (2) that there exist numerous situations in which socio-economics could benefit from a more formal analysis. This is particularly the case when institutions play an important role in the system to be investiga...

Theoretical models of the Kuznets Curve have been purely analytical with little contribution towards an understanding of the timing of the process and the presence of additional mechanisms affecting its timing. This paper proposes an agent-based version of Acemoglu and Robinson’s model of the Kuznets Curve. In extending their analytical framework...

Theoretical models of the Kuznets Curve have been purely analytical with little contribution to the timing of the process and to the presence of additional mechanisms affecting its timing. This paper proposes an agent-based version of Acemoglu and Robinsons model of the political economy of the Kuznets Curve. In extending their analytical framework...

Classical economists from Adam Smith to Thomas Malthus and to Karl Marx have considered the importance of direct interdependence and direct interactions for the economy. This was even more the case for original institutionalist thinkers such as Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, and Clarence Ayres. In their writings, direct interdependence, interactio...

This paper compares the formal foundations of the currently most common applied models in Economics, computable general equilibrium (CGE) and dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, with that of agent-based models and simulations (ABMS). It is argued that the claim made by many economists, that CGE and DSGE models have a superior form...