TY  - JOUR
AU  - Durlauf,Steven N.
TI  - Statistical Mechanics Approaches to Socioeconomic Behavior
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Technical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 203
PY  - 1996
Y2  - September 1996
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/t0203
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/t0203.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Steven N. Durlauf
Department of Economics
University of Wisconsin
1180 Observatory Drive
Madison, WI  53706-1393
Tel: 608/263-3859
Fax: 608/262-2033
E-Mail: sdurlauf@ssc.wisc.edu
AB  - This paper provides a unified framework for interpreting a wide range of interactions models which have appeared in the economics literature.  A formalization taken from the statistical mechanics literature is shown to encompass a number of socioeconomic phenomena ranging from out of wedlock births to aggregate output to crime.  The framework bears a close relationship to econometric models of discrete choice and therefore holds the potential for rendering interactions models estimable.  A number of new applications of statistical mechanics to socioeconomic problems are suggested.
ER  -