A Research Forum for Technology Commercialization and Economic Logistics

A leading theme of IC² Institute research has been the development and application of operations research techniques to analyze the capitalist process, enabling a more realistic portrayal of managerial behavior and of markets. The Institute hosted the first international conference in Computational Economics in 1990. Dr. Thore's publications in computational economics includes a graduate textbook, and work done jointly with G.L. Thompson of Carnegie Mellon University.

"Following an introductory chapter and a review of the saddle-point theory, coauthored with W.W. Cooper, Thore explores the three dimensions of the supply process synthesis: the spatial dimension (as in simple transportation systems), the vertical dimension (extending from resources to finished consumer goods, as in activity analysis) and the time dimension (as in inventory accumulation and investment). The combination of these then leads to models of such diverse subjects as regional warehouse systems, activity analysis and activity networks, multi-stage warehouse systems of intermediate goods, distribution networks, and spatial equilibrium. Each chapter contains its own exercises which are solved numerically and discussed in great detail, and which illustrate such optimization techniques as linear and nonlinear programming, goal programming and goal focusing, chance-constrained programming, and infinite games. This work is designed for use in graduate courses in economics and mathematics modeling, and will also be a useful addition to college and university library collections."    

Cited from the back cover of the book: "Our intent in writing this book is to provide a modern textbook on optimization in economics. In the 1960s and 19702, nearly every economics department offered a course in operations research methods in economics, and the usual textbook used was Economic Theory and Operations Analysis by W.J. Baumol. An entire generation of economics students was familiar with this book which, however, has become outdated, so that many departments have ceased to offer such courses."

"In order to write a modern version of the course it was necessary to take into account the vast changes that the fields of operations research and economics have undergone. First the array of operations research models that can be applied to economics and their diversity have grown dramatically. Second, personal computers and the software needed to quickly find numerical solutions to such models have only recently become widely available. Thus the course no longer must consist merely of descriptions of what kinds of models could be developed and solved if a computer and suitable software were available, but rather can discuss actual economic models and their solutions."

"We shall make use of the GAMS (General Algebraic Modeling System) software  package which is included on the diskette that comes with this book. for solving all of the text examples and homework exercises."

Cited from the Preface to the volume:  "In recent years, computational economics has become a research field attracting considerable interest. We believe it is a discipline "whose time has come, " largely because much computer hardware and software is now at hand that is useful   for solving such problems. Maybe somewhat cynically, one may also point at another reason: there seems to be no consensus as to what, precisely, computational economics is supposed to be. Speaking loosely, almost everybody in economics, management, and operations research who is involved with numbers is doing computational economics. It would encompass econometrics, mathematical economics, nonlinear dynamics including chaos theory, experimental economics and so on."

"The main reasons for increasing interest in computational economics are the increasing complexity of economic problems, coupled with advances in numerical methods and computer architectures. Computational approaches to economic analysis and policy are now becoming practical because of new computer capabilities and algorithms, and the greatly enhanced availability of data for use in economic modeling."

"The purpose of this special issue of the Annals of Operations Research is to bring to the readers of this journal a well-rounded collection of papers that reflects the current thinking and practice of computational economics, as well as visions for future work. We sought for the volume  contributions in economic analysis in which computations play a pivotal role in their development and understanding. The papers printed here fall under four headings: (i) Game theory and economic games, which includes: economic models analyzing real-life economic problems with the help of operations research techniques such as mathematical programming; (iii) the computation of general equilibrium systems in economics; (iii) data envelopment analysis,  (iv) nonlinear dynamic economic systems."