Report of Work Group C: Patterns

The general topics for discussion and questions addressed to this group were the following: Economic development as a complex system, as a pattern problem. Are there many equivalent states? Can one model the diffusion of development as a reaction-diffusion front? Political input as damping/enhancing factor in development. Regional economic differences. Is there a tendency to polarization? Do reaction models offer a parallel? Is this paralleled by international economic differences? Review of possibilities for lock-in. Do such methods as annealing suggest policies or spontaneous actions of the economic system for removing harmful lock-in?