Epistemological considerations on agent-based models in evolutionary consumer choice theory ΠEmergence: Complexity and Organization

This paper analyzes the epistemological implications of complexity studies on consumer theory. Agent-based models in complexity studies are a good fit to try to describe individual consumption via evolving patterns, and are being painstakingly researched (Potts, 2001; Fonseca & Zeidan, 2002). The implications of this research are that new theories and models are being created, and a paradigm shift is occurring that will probably lead to a new orthodoxy in consumer theory. However, a question arises as of how this shift is taking place: through a Kuhnian incommensurability approach or a Popperian evolution. This paper is a speculative piece on the methodology of studies of complex adaptive systems in economics, with special regard to consumer theory, and tries to assess costs and benefi ts of both approaches as regarding the new complex theories of consumer behavior. The main proposition is that authors should look into a non-Kuhnian approach to the problem, trying to incorporate the complexity approach into a framework understandable by orthodox economists.