IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tky/fseres/2007cf493.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Non-Self-Averaging in Macroeconomic Models: A Criticism of Modern Micro-founded Macroeconomics

Author

Listed:
  • Masanao Aoki

    (Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles)

  • Hiroshi Yoshikawa

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo)

Abstract

Using a simple stochastic growth model, this paper emonstrates that the coefficient of variation of aggregate output or GDP does not necessarily go to zero even if the number of sectors or economic agents goes to infinity. This phenomenon known as non-self-averaging implies that even if the number of economic agents is large, dispersion can remain significant, and, therefore, that we can not legitimately focus on the means of aggregate variables. It, in turn, means that the standard microeconomic foundations based on the representative agent has little value for they are expected to provide us with dynamics of the means of aggregate variables. The paper also shows that non-self-averaging emerges in some representative urn models. It suggests that non-self-averaging is not pathological but quite generic. Thus, contrary to the main stream view, micro-founded macroeconomics such as a dynamic general equilibrium model does not provide solid micro foundations.

Suggested Citation

  • Masanao Aoki & Hiroshi Yoshikawa, 2007. "Non-Self-Averaging in Macroeconomic Models: A Criticism of Modern Micro-founded Macroeconomics," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-493, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
  • Handle: RePEc:tky:fseres:2007cf493
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cirje.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/research/dp/2007/2007cf493.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul M, 1986. "Increasing Returns and Long-run Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(5), pages 1002-1037, October.
    2. Plosser, Charles I, 1989. "Understanding Real Business Cycles," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 51-77, Summer.
    3. Aoki, Masanao, 2008. "Thermodynamic limits of macroeconomic or financial models: One- and two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 66-84, January.
    4. Sutton, John, 2002. "The variance of firm growth rates: the ‘scaling’ puzzle," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 312(3), pages 577-590.
    5. Aghion, Philippe & Howitt, Peter, 1992. "A Model of Growth through Creative Destruction," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 323-351, March.
    6. S .G. Winter & Y. M. Kaniovski, 2000. "Modeling Industrial Dynamics with Innovative Entrants," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 16, pages 459-500, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Masanao Aoki, 2006. "Thermodynamic Limits of Macroeconomic or Financial Models: One-and Two-Parameter Poisson-Dirichlet Models (Forthcoming in "Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control", 2007. )," CARF F-Series CARF-F-083, Center for Advanced Research in Finance, Faculty of Economics, The University of Tokyo.
    8. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April.
    9. Devroye, Luc, 1993. "A triptych of discrete distributions related to the stable law," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 349-351, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuji Aruka & Eizo Akiyama, 2009. "Non-self-averaging of a two-person game with only positive spillover: a new formulation of Avatamsaka’s dilemma," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 4(2), pages 135-161, November.
    2. Wright, Ian, 2009. "Implicit Microfoundations for Macroeconomics," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 3, pages 1-27.
    3. U. Garibaldi & P. Viarengo, 2012. "Exchangeability and non-self-averaging," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(2), pages 181-195, October.
    4. Song, Edward, 2014. "Economic Science: From the Ideal Gas Law Economy to Piketty and Beyond," MPRA Paper 57391, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    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. Masanao Aoki & Hiroshi Yoshikawa, 2012. "Non-self-averaging in macroeconomic models: a criticism of modern micro-founded macroeconomics," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, May.
    2. Aoki, Masanao, 2008. "Thermodynamic limits of macroeconomic or financial models: One- and two-parameter Poisson-Dirichlet models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 66-84, January.
    3. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and macroeconomics," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 373-383.
    4. Sandra Silva, 2009. "On evolutionary technological change and economic growth: Lakatos as a starting point for appraisal," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 111-135, February.
    5. Ignacio Escañuela ROMANA, 2016. "Randomness, Determinism and Undecidability in the Economic Cycle Theory," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 638-658, December.
    6. Aoki, Masanao & Hawkins, Raymond J., 2010. "Non-self-averaging and the statistical mechanics of endogenous macroeconomic fluctuations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1543-1546, November.
    7. Gautier, P. & Broersma, L., 1994. "The timing of labor reallocation and the business cycle," Serie Research Memoranda 0029, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    8. Jun, Bogang & Kim, Tai-Yoo, 2015. "A neo-Schumpeterian perspective on the analytical macroeconomic framework: The expanded reproduction system," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 11-2015, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.
    9. Michaël Assous & Muriel Dal Pont Legrand & Harald Hagemann, 2016. "Business cycles and growth," Chapters, in: Gilbert Faccarello & Heinz D. Kurz (ed.), Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis Volume III, chapter 4, pages 27-39, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Heijs, Joost, 2003. "Freerider behaviour and the public finance of R&D activities in enterprises: the case of the Spanish low interest credits for R&D," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 445-461, March.
    11. Kawalec Paweł, 2020. "The dynamics of theories of economic growth: An impact of Unified Growth Theory," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 19-44, June.
    12. Patrick Legros & Andrew F. Newman & Eugenio Proto, 2014. "Smithian Growth through Creative Organization," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 796-811, December.
    13. Wilson, E.J. & Chaudhri, D.P., 2000. "Endogeneity, Knowledge and Dynamics of Long Run Capitalist Economic Growth," Economics Working Papers wp00-03, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    14. Alison Butler & Michael R. Pakko, 1998. "R&D spending and cyclical fluctuations: putting the \"technology\" in technology shocks," Working Papers 1998-020, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    15. Saima Javed & Yu Rong & Hafiz Muhammad Ihsan Zafeer & Samra Maqbool & Babar Nawaz Abbasi, 2024. "Unleashing the potential: a quest to understand and examine the factors enriching research and innovation productivities of South Asian universities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    16. I. Hakan Yetkiner, 2006. "Saglik ile Buyume," Ege Academic Review, Ege University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, vol. 6(2), pages 83-91.
    17. Mark Knell & Simone Vannuccini, 2022. "Tools and concepts for understanding disruptive technological change after Schumpeter," Jena Economics Research Papers 2022-005, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    18. Mauro Napoletano & Jean-Luc Gaffard, 2010. "Performances et politiques de croissance. Un éclairage empirique à partir d'une étude de l'effet de la taille des pays et nouvelles réflexions théoriques," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 213-248.
    19. Pozzolo, Alberto Franco, 2004. "Endogenous Growth in Open Economies - A Survey of Major Results," Economics & Statistics Discussion Papers esdp04020, University of Molise, Department of Economics.
    20. Di Giannatale, Sonia & Roa, María José, 2016. "Formal Saving in Developing Economies: Barriers, Interventions, and Effects," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 8107, Inter-American Development Bank.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:tky:fseres:2007cf493. 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: CIRJE administrative office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ritokjp.html .

    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.