IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zna/indecs/v10y2012i2p103-113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Greatest Happiness Principle in a Complex System: Maximisation versus Driving Force

Author

Listed:
  • Katalin Martinás

    (Department of Atomic Physics, Eötvös Loránd University)

  • Zsolt Gilányi

    (University of West Hungary)

Abstract

From philosophical point of view, micro-founded economic theories depart from the principle of the pursuit of the greatest happiness. From mathematical point of view, micro-founded economic theories depart from the utility maximisation program. Though economists are aware of the serious limitations of the equilibrium analysis, they remain in that framework. We show that the maximisation principle, which implies the equilibrium hypothesis, is responsible for this impasse. We formalise the pursuit of the greatest happiness principle by the help of the driving force postulate: the volumes of activities depend on the expected wealth increase. In that case we can get rid of the equilibrium hypothesis and have new insights into economic theory. For example, in what extent standard economic results depend on the equilibrium hypothesis?

Suggested Citation

  • Katalin Martinás & Zsolt Gilányi, 2012. "Greatest Happiness Principle in a Complex System: Maximisation versus Driving Force," Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, Croatian Interdisciplinary Society Provider Homepage: http://indecs.eu, vol. 10(2), pages 103-113.
    • Handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:10:y:2012:i:2:p:103-113
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://indecs.eu/2012/indecs2012-pp103-113.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hellwig, Martin F., 1993. "The challenge of monetary theory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 215-242, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Radwanski, Juliusz, 2020. "On the Purchasing Power of Money in an Exchange Economy," MPRA Paper 104244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/2961 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Jérôme Creel & Henri Sterdyniak, 1999. "La politique monétaire sans monnaie," Revue de l'OFCE, Programme National Persée, vol. 70(1), pages 111-153.
    4. Diarmid Weir, 2013. "Fiat Money, Individual Rationality and Production," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 573-590, November.
    5. Sinn Hans-Werner, 2019. "Der Streit um die Targetsalden : Kommentar zu Martin Hellwigs Artikel „Target-Falle oder Empörungsfalle?“," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, De Gruyter, vol. 20(3), pages 170-217, September.
    6. Martin Hellwig, 2021. "Der Zinssatz ist kein Preis [The Interest Rate Should not be Interpreted as a Price]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(11), pages 862-869, November.
    7. Gilányi, Zsolt, 2008. "Az uralkodó pénzelmélet alapproblémái - a készpénzfedezeti korlátok problémájáról [Underlying problems with the current theory of money - the problem of cash-cover limits]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 136-148.
    8. Ingolf Schwarz, 2006. "Monetary Equilibria in a Baumol-Tobin Economy," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2006_15, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    9. Neil Wallace, 1997. "Absence-of-double-coincidence models of money: a progress report," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 21(Win), pages 2-20.
    10. repec:zna:indecs:v:10:y:2012:i:1:p:103-113 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Andreas Schabert, 2004. "On the relevance of open market operations for the short-run effects of monetary policy," Money Macro and Finance (MMF) Research Group Conference 2003 83, Money Macro and Finance Research Group.
    12. Camera, Gabriele & Winkler, Johannes, 2003. "International monetary trade and the law of one price," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(7), pages 1531-1553, October.
    13. Gabriele Camera & Charles Noussair & Steven Tucker, 2003. "Rate-of-return dominance and efficiency in an experimental economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 22(3), pages 629-660, October.
    14. Nenovsky, Nikolay, 2019. "Money as a coordinating device of a commodity economy: old and new, Russian and French readings of Marx. Part 1. Monetary theory of value [La monnaie comme dispositif de coordination d'une économie," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 26.
    15. Hens, Thorsten & Schenk-Hoppe, Klaus Reiner, 2006. "Markets do not select for a liquidity preference as behavior towards risk," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 279-292, February.
    16. Andrés Álvarez & Vincent Bignon, 2013. "L. Walras and C. Menger: two ways on the path of modern monetary theory," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 89-124, February.
    17. Neil Wallace, 1996. "Un precepto para la teoría monetaria," Apuntes. Revista de ciencias sociales, Fondo Editorial, Universidad del Pacífico, vol. 23(39), pages 3-12.
    18. Martin Hellwig, 2019. "Target-Falle oder Empörungsfalle? – Zur deutschen Diskussion um die Europäische Währungsunion," Discussion Paper Series of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2019_05, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods.
    19. Rojas Breu, Mariana, 2017. "Debt enforcement and the value of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 237-251.
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/2961 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Streissler Erich W., 2000. "Internationale Finanzmärkte aus einer von Hayek inspirierten Sicht," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 51(1), pages 75-96, January.
    22. R. Ahalya & R. Ramanathan, 2016. "Endogenizing Consumption Decision In The Frenkel–Jovanovic Stochastic Model Of Money Holding," Annals of Financial Economics (AFE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(03), pages 1-10, September.
    23. Leo Ferraris, 2002. "Inside versus outside money: indeterminacy in GEI models," Working Papers in Public Economics 62, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    driving force; equilibrium hypothesis; utility maximisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • D01 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • I19 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Other

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zna:indecs:v:10:y:2012:i:2:p:103-113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Josip Stepanic (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.