Indeterministic Economics

The growing turbulence of today's economic life requires innovative approaches to economics. There have been recent dissident works examining both micro- and macroeconomics which call into question orthodox indicators of economic performance--such as profit and gross national product. The present work adds to such innovative economic thought by offering an indeterministic conceptualization of different levels of an economy and by elaborating a variety of stages of economic development, each with its respective measure of performance.

The main conclusions arrived at in this unique work suggest that the fundamental tenets of present-day economic thought must be re-examined. * The overall scheme of measuring changes in economics based on constant prices for some base year must be redesigned in order to avoid measuring development under the guise of measuring growth; * The market price of a business has to be set on the basis of the value of its potential. * It is advisable to measure the firm's current economic performance based on the criterion which designates the gap between the firm's potential and a properly defined ideal state; * Methods of teaching business should be distinguished depending on students' expected right-brain or left-brain orientation; * It is important to realize that the subjective elements of decision-making by the leaders of an economic system or subsystem are intrinsic to indeterministic development of the economy.

ARON KATSENELINBOIGEN was born in the Soviet Union and studied at the Moscow State Economic Institute. Since his emigration to the United States, Dr. Katsenelinboigen has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, and since 1978, at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He is the author of fourteen books including, most recently, Selected Topics in Indeterministic Systems (1989), and The Soviet Union: Empire, Nation, and System (1990).