July 31, 2026
Chaos and Complexity Economics (with J. Doyne Farmer)
EconTalk · J. Doyne Farmer · 65 min
Why we chose this episode
Physicist J. Doyne Farmer argues that standard economic models miss what chaos theory and agent-based simulation can capture about real human behavior. Russ Roberts pushes back throughout, which keeps the conversation honest rather than one-sided. It's a genuine debate about what economics is even trying to predict.
Listen for this question
Can economics ever be a genuinely predictive science, or is complexity too fundamental to model away?
Listen to the full episode
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Best way to listen
Listen while doing something repetitive, like cooking or folding laundry.
After the episode
Let the disagreement sit unresolved instead of reaching for a tidy conclusion.
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