Emergence in economics

Paul Krugman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008. He is also a New York Times columnist. Why mention him here? He is mentioned in Steven Johnson's book Emergence (p. 89-91) for a mathematical model which describes how spatially segregated business centres emerge. This is described in Krugman's book, The Self-Organising Economy.

Here are Krugman's "rules for research", taken from a talk, "How I work"

1. Listen to the Gentiles

2. Question the question

3. Dare to be silly

4. Simplify, simplify

1. means "Pay attention to what intelligent people are saying, even if they do not have your customs or speak your analytical language."

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