Formal Methods for Integrated Socioeconomic Analysis: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Abstract

I am pleased to bring you this special issue of the Forum for Social Economics devoted to exploring formal methods that can be used to delineate and analyze socioeconomic complexity using holistic and integrated frameworks. Examples of such frameworks are: The social fabric matrix approach (SFM-A), originally social fabric matrix (Hayden, 1982, 2006), institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework (Ostrom, 2005), systems dynamics (SD) (Forrester, 1968, 1985), and more recently, agent-based computational modeling (ABM) (Chen, 2012; Elsner et al., 2014 Chapter 9). I will briefly discuss the SFM-A and IAD frameworks, first, in order to provide the context for a synopsis of the articles in this special issue.

Keywords:

• heterodox economics
• formal methods
• integrated socioeconomic analysis
• social fabric matrix approach
• institutional analysis and development
• agent based modeling
• systems dynamics