W. Brian Arthur

William Brian Arthur
William Brian Arthur
	Arthur at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 2011
Born	31 July 1945 (age 78); Belfast, Northern Ireland
Citizenship	Ireland and UK; United States (permanent resident);
Academic career
Institutions	Stanford University; Santa Fe Institute;
Field	Complexity economics
Alma mater	Lancaster University; University of Michigan
Doctoral; advisor	Stuart Dreyfus
Contributions	El Farol Bar problem; Increasing returns;

William Brian Arthur (born 31 July 1945) is a Belfast-born economist credited with developing the modern approach to increasing returns.^[1] He has lived and worked in Northern California for many years. He is an authority on economics in relation to complexity theory, technology and financial markets. He has been on the external faculty at the Santa Fe Institute, and a Visiting Researcher at the Intelligent Systems Lab^[2] at PARC. He is credited with the invention of the El Farol Bar problem.

^ Foreword by Nobel Economist Kenneth Arrow to Arthur's book Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy
^ "Intelligent Systems Lab". Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2007.

[1] Foreword by Nobel Economist Kenneth Arrow to Arthur's book Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy

[2] "Intelligent Systems Lab". Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 17 October 2007.

[1]

[2]

William Brian Arthur
Arthur at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, 2011
Born	(1945-07-31) 31 July 1945 (age 78) Belfast, Northern Ireland
Citizenship	Ireland and UK United States (permanent resident)

Academic career
Institutions	Stanford University Santa Fe Institute
Field	Complexity economics
Alma mater	Lancaster University University of Michigan
Doctoral advisor	Stuart Dreyfus
Contributions	El Farol Bar problem Increasing returns