Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Temporal criticality in socio-technical systems
Abstract: Socio-technical systems, where technological and human elements interact in a goal-oriented manner, provide important, functional support to our societies. We draw specific attention to the concept of timeliness that has been ubiquitously and integrally adopted as a quality standard in the modus operandi of socio-technical systems, but remains an underappreciated aspect. We point out that a variety of incentives, often reinforced by competitive pressures, prompt system operators to myopically optimize for cost- and time-efficiencies, running the risk of inadvertently pushing the systems towards the proverbial 'edge of a cliff'. Invoking a stylized model for operational delays, we argue that this cliff edge is a true critical point — identified as temporal criticality — implying that system efficiency and robustness to perturbation are in tension with each other. Specifically for firm-to-firm production networks, we suggest that the proximity to temporal criticality is a possible route for solving the fundamental "excess volatility puzzle" in economics. Further, in generality for optimizing socio-technical systems, we propose that system operators incorporate a measure of resilience in their welfare functions.
Author-Name: Moran, José
Author-Name: P. Pijpers, Frank
Author-Name: Weitzel, Utz
Author-Name: Panja, Debabrata
Author-Name: Bouchaud, Jean-Philippe
File-URL: https://oms-inet.files.svdcdn.com/production/files/Temporal-criticality-in-socio-technical-systems.pdf?dm=1691136962
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: 
Length: 10 pages
Creation-Date: 2023-08
Handle: RePEc:amz:wpaper:2023-13