Towards Long Time Growth in Equilibrium: Game Approach

Abstract

Different levels of development of individual countries cannot be simply explained with some of them enjoying better natural conditions. After all, so-called paradise islands haven’t become leaders of growth, while a number of countries with difficult natural conditions (Scandinavian states, Japan) rank within strict leaders of the civilized world and there are hardly any signs to suggest they are about to lose their positions. This makes them models others are encouraged to follow. However, it occurs that the rate of success in implementation of selected solutions therefrom is rather mediocre. From historical perspective this situation is quite new. Assembly lines in Ford factories could have been effectively applied worldwide. Fast-food networks or shipping containers could have too. At present, however, in the 21^st Century, equally spectacular cases seem hard to find. This may come as a surprise, considering that striking differences persist in the efficiency of individual countries’ economies. In Europe, the distance between the North and the South remains undiminished; enormous chasm divides the United Mexican States from the United States of America. And all this happens in the world where – apart from few exceptions – almost all economies are open to well-proven solutions. Even if it’s impossible to transform the whole thing over a short period, modeling upon best examples and practices, still it should be viable to achieve a gradual progress, step by step, through adaptation and transformation of individual elements of a given economy and emulating model solutions taken, for example, from neighbor countries. This way the development gap could be slowly reduced or at least stopped from increasing any further. And yet, this approach fails to yield significant effects. The reason, it seems, is in the growing integration and complexity of national manufacturing systems. It is always difficult to build something into a compact and complex system. This is especially evident with attempts to adapt foreign innovation-fostering systems. Usually, due to the lack of some elements, links, etc., the sub-system in question cannot achieve the efficacy of its model. Does it mean that such an implementation is entirely infeasible? No, it’s not. While inflexible top-down adaptation occurs ineffective, it may be possible to start a successful process of self-adaptation that reaches deep within the entire system. It could be imagined like veins of the right kind of mold that penetrates cheese making it delicious. The point is this is a difficult sort of operation that requires a non-traditional (non-static) systemic approach.