Advancements of Grey Systems Theory in Economics and Social Sciences

Book excerpt: This book focuses on the main advancements made in the economics and social sciences field through the use of grey systems theory. As a result, it addresses both the state of the art and the applications of grey systems theory in economics and social sciences. The book is structured in eight main chapters, covering the following topics: the state of the art in the grey systems theory research in economics and social sciences, which includes a bibliometric analysis, a selection of the most well-cited papers in the field, and a selection of applications in which the grey systems theory is used in the areas of suppliers selection, risk assessment, public opinion assessment, linear programming, complex projects management, social media analysis, and natural language processing Each chapter gives an overview of a particular economic or social sciences topic, providing an explanation on the main terms and methods used for solving the problem, including the notations, terminology, and the needed steps to solve it. A practical application is presented in most of the chapters, while in the others, a series of case studies are presented from the literature and discussed in depth in terms of methods used and advantages brought by each of these methods. The last chapter discusses the hybridization cases in which the grey systems theory has been or can be successfully used along with other artificial intelligence methods and techniques for a more advanced analysis in the economics and social sciences field. The reasoning and the explanations used in the book are easy to understand for the interested persons who are not familiar to the field and want to learn more related on how the grey systems theory can be applied to economics and social sciences. As for the experts in this field, this book can be a good referral point for developing new areas of research by combining the advantages of the grey systems theory with other theories within the field.