Probabilistic Political Economy: "Laws of Chaos" in the 21st Century

Call for papers

The publication in 1983 of "Laws of Chaos, A Probabilistic Approach to Political Economy" by Emmanuel Farjoun and Moshe Machover was an event of genuine theoretical innovation in the field of political economy. The book was a response to the impasse reached by the input-output method of representing an economy, in particular when applied to the theory of economic value. Farjoun and Machover's innovations include the systematic introduction of probabilistic modelling, statistical mechanics, and probabilistic laws to the field of political economy. They rejected the adequacy of deterministic models to capture essential features of a dynamic and distributed market economy, which they viewed as a complex system characterised by a huge number of degrees of freedom. Employing probabilistic arguments, Farjoun and Machover developed a broad model of the capitalist economy that, in contrast to deterministic approaches, had a more immediate connection to empirical reality and yielded important and theoretically distinct, macroeconomic conclusions, including probabilistic laws governing the relationship between price and labour-content, the distribution of the profit rate, and the tendency of labour productivity to increase.

2008 is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Farjoun and Machover's book and the aim of the conference is to celebrate this event. In particular, the conference will concentrate on four main themes: (i) "Laws of Chaos", a reflection on the reception and subsequent impact of Farjoun and Machover's book, (ii) "Theory and methods", an exploration of the concept of statistical equilibrium in political economy, (iii) "Models and empirical reality", investigations of specific non-deterministic, economic models and their relationship to empirical data, and (iv) "Disequilibrium and out-of-equilibrium dynamics", examining the disequilibrium properties and empirical plausibility of non-deterministic models of capitalism. Our aim is to reflect on the past and stimulate the next 25 years of the research programme of probabilistic political economy.

Important Dates

• Deadline for paper proposals: 12th Nov 2007. (Acceptance notices will be sent by 3rd Dec 2007.)
  

• Deadline for registration: 14th March 2008.
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  Download registration form in pdf format (49kb)
• Deadline for final paper submissions: 14th April 2008.
• Conference opens: 14th July 2008

Conference Themes

1. Laws of Chaos

We invite papers on:

• The genesis and reception of "Laws of Chaos".
• Critiques of "Laws of Chaos".
• The contribution of "Laws of Chaos" to value theory and the transformation problem.
• The subsequent development of probabilistic methods in political economy, including the relation of "Laws of Chaos" to wider developments in economics, such as the emergence of econophysics.
  
  

2. Theory and methods - statistical equilibrium in economics

We invite papers on:

• The concept of a statistical equilibrium in economic systems.
• Deterministic vs. probabilistic models.
• Probabilistic ideas in Marx and Engels, and after.
• Modelling techniques and formalisms, such as statistical mechanics, maximum entropy, thermodynamics, diffusion equations and random walks etc.
• Computational modelling and zero-intelligence agents.
  
  

3. Models and empirical reality

We invite papers on:

• The empirical relation between price and labour-content.
• The rate of profit as a random variable.
• The capitalist space economy, and other geographical themes.
• The social architecture of capitalism, including broad macroeconomic models of income distribution, firm growth, business cycles, the emergence of economic classes, etc.
  
  

4. Disequilibrium and out-of-equilibrium dynamics.

Examining the disequilibrium properties and empirical plausibility of non-deterministic models of capitalism.

We invite papers on:

• Applications of complexity theory, 'on the edge of chaos', to non-deterministic models.
• Utility of simulation and other computationally intensive approaches to characterize out-of-equilibrium dynamics.
• Non-deterministic evolutionary models of capitalist societal dynamics.
• Agent-based models of the capitalist economy.

All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. Our intention is to publish a selection of the best papers in book form.

Keynote speakers

Emmanuel Farjoun,
Professor of Mathematics, Einstein Institute of Mathematics, The Hebrew University of Jerualem, Israel.

Moshé Machover,
Professor of Philosophy, King's College London, UK.

Invited speakers

Masanao Aoki, Professor Emeritus of Economics, UCLA

Paul Cockshott, Reader in Computer Science, Department of Computer Science, University of Glasgow 

Allin Cottrell, Professor of Economics, Wake Forest University

Jurgen Essletzbichler, Lecturer, Department of Geography, UCL

Alan Freeman, Visiting Lecturer in Economics, School of Business and the Humanities, University of Greenwich

Steve Keen,  Associate Professor of Economics and Finance, University of Western Sydney

Andrew Kliman, Professor of Economics, Pace University

Paul Plummer, Professor of Geography, University of Calgary

David Rigby, Professor of Geography, UCLA

Michael Webber, Professor of Geography, University of Melbrourne 

Victor Yakovenko, Professor of Physics, University of Maryland

Papers

Paper proposals

Please submit paper proposals before 12th Nov 2007. Acceptance notices will be sent by 3rd Dec 2007.

Please submit an abstract of up to 500 words using this online form (http://fass.kingston.ac.uk/conferences/apply/index.shtml). When submitting a proposal please remember to select the conference "Probabilistic Political Economy" from the drop-down menu in section 2. Also indicate under which conference theme you wish it to be reviewed in the final message box.

Final abstracts

For accepted proposals submit an abstract by 14th Jan 2008.

Final papers

For accepted proposals submit the final paper by 14th April 2008.

Registration

Participants without paper presentations are welcome. For registration and details on venue and accommodation please visit the Kingston University conference web page.

Organising committee

Julian Wells,
Senior Lecturer in Economics at Kingston University, UK.

Eric Sheppard,
Professor of Economic Geography, University of Minnesota, USA.

Ian Wright,
Research Student, Open University, UK.

Relevant literature

Laws of Chaos, a Probabilistic Approach to Political Economy. Emmanuel Farjoun and Moshe Machover. Verso, London, 1983. (Available in digital format from www.probabilisticpoliticaleconomy.net).

Ricardo Marx Sraffa -- the Langston Memorial Volume. Edited by Ernest Mandel and Alan Freeman, Verso, London, 1984.

Statistical mechanics of money. A. Dragulescu and V. M. Yakovenko. The European Physical Journal B, 17:723--729, 2000.