« The Evolving Web of Future Wealth »

by Stuart Kauffman, Stefan Thurner and Rudolf Hanel

Scientific American, May 9, 2008

The web of connections among goods and services in an economy may be the long-missing key to understanding how novel innovations and new wealth arise.

Economies have existed for as long as humans have relied on artifacts and trade. Fifty thousand years ago, the estimated diversity in the global economy might have been between 100 and 1,000 types of goods and services. Today, economist Eric Bienhocker of McKinsey and Company estimates the diversity of goods and services available in New York City alone at about 10 billion. Perhaps the most stunning feature of the economy over time is the explosion of goods and services. Yet contemporary economics has no adequate theory to understand this explosion or its importance for economic growth and the evolution of future wealth.

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