Learning in Economics: Analysis and Application of Genetic Algorithms

The book is dedicated to the use of genetic algorithms in theoretical economic research. Genetic algorithms offer the chance of overcoming the limitations traditional mathematical tractability puts on economic research and thus open new horzions for economic theory. The book reveals close relationships between the theory of economic learning via genetic algorithms, dynamic game theory, and evolutionary economics.
Genetic algorithms are here introduced as metaphors for processes of social and individual learning in economics. The book gives a simple description of the basic structures of economic genetic algorithms, followed by an in-depth analysis of their working principles. Several well-known economic models are reconstructed to incorporate genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms thus help to find genuinely new results of well-known economic problems.