Non-equilibrium economics

Non-equilibrium economics understands economic processes as non-equilibrium phenomena, as opposed to standard neoclassical equilibrium economics. This approach is consistent with our understanding of life processes as non-equilibrium phenomena. It is represented by modern researchers in the fields of evolutionary-institutional economics, Post Keynesian economics, Ecological Economics, development and growth economics. The early contributions to this theory were made by Thorstein Veblen, Gunnar Myrdal, Karl William Kapp and Nicholas Kaldor. Many contributions have been made to this field in recent years, such as "The Foundations of Non-Equilibrium Economics: The Principle of Circular Cumulative Causation" (2009), Routledge.

In a similar vein, Austrian Economics understands that the economy never finds itself in a state of equilibrium. For an equilibrium state to manifest, humans would have to not act which, as long as humans are alive, is necessarily impossible. Instead, the market process constantly tends toward equilibrium but can never reach it. Thus the economy can be thought of as forever in dynamic disequilibrium with the tendency, through entrepreneurship, to move toward equilibrium, and in doing so, people's subjective needs are met through trade.

Related fields of economics include Complexity economics, Evolutionary economics and Austrian economics.