This book advances growth theory with heterogenous households (such as gender, professions, classes, races) by integrating various theories of modern economics into a comprehensive analytical framework. Classification of households into different groups is based on behavioral characters (such as propensities to save, to enjoy leisure, to have children), economic conditions, social status, or other identities (such as ethnicity). It is composed of many models — each emphasizing interactions between households, and some economic, technological, human capital, knowledge, institutional, environmental, or structural variables. Each model can be mathematically integrated with any other model in the book. The book also provides a computational procedure for simulation so that anyone can see dynamics of the system with computers.

As part of the author's general economic theory, the book focuses on constructing a theory to explain complexity of behavioral dynamics of different people in a single analytical framework with minimum assumptions. It constructs a theoretical framework on the basis of a few concepts that would permit valid generalizations from one special modelling structure to another and would deepen understanding of the complexity of political, social, and economic dynamics in a systematic manner.

Zhang Wei-Bin, Ph.D. (Umeå, Sweden), has been a Professor at APU since 2000. He graduated in 1982 from Beijing University. He got a master’s degree and completed the Ph.D. course at the Department of Civil Engineering, Kyoto University, in September 1987. He completed his dissertation on economic growth theory in Sweden by April 1989. Since then, he researched at the Swedish Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm for 10 years. His main research fields are complexity theory in economics (nonlinear economic dynamics, chaos theory, synergetic economics), ancient Chinese thought, American civilization, and the economic development and modernization of Chinese societies and Japan. He single-authorized 490 academic articles (240 in international peer-reviewed journals), 33 academic books in English by well-known international academic publishing houses.