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One Plus One Equals Two: More or Less
Department of Economics, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany
- 1 Department of Economics, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany
Theoretical Economics Letters·Volume 12 (2022)·Pages 972–979·Published 2 August 2022·DOI10.4236/tel.2022.124053
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Abstract
Mathematics has many advanced applications in economics. By contrast, this note applies very simple instruments. We explore a range of cases where the proposition makes sense that one plus one is more or less than two. A first case drawn from commerce documents an example where units have more than one dimension. Examples from production economics (with reproduction and predator-prey type interactions) further illustrate how adding units affect the results of summation. The implied logical ambiguities described here can hamper human communication. Put differently, cognitive limitations may be the very reason why results of simple scalar additions are so often presented.
KeywordsVector AdditionInteracting UnitsEconomic Units with Multiple Dimensions
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