Structural change and economic dynamics: Rethinking from the complexity approach

Abstract

Economic systems have evolved through time thereby changing the structure that characterizes them. These changes respond to technological changes that transform economies into highly interconnected systems. The modifications in the norms that guide the behaviour of organizations and, therefore the functioning of the economy, are a first case of this transformation. The industrialization process, through the incorporation of increasing returns to scale in different sectors, and the introduction of service activities are other examples. Another form to represent structural change is the change of the values of the variables that characterize the state space of an economic system. This research article is an effort to put together and compare, from the complexity approach, different approaches for structural change and dynamics of economic systems. We start by briefly presenting the complexity approach in general and in economics. Then, we put forward three approaches highlighting structural change.