Process and information in economic models of markets

The theme of this essay is simple: what economic equilibrium is in a particular market (structure) depends on what individuals and firms know and how they react in disequilibrium processes to information imperfectly available in that market. Three simplified cases are used to demonstrate this point. The cases technically are shown to be related to the kinds of analyses common in System Theory. From this it is argued that as economists move away from general equilibrium models under certainty with analysis by static equilibrium systems of simultaneous equations, the concepts and methods of systems science will become more important to the economist.