The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics

by Edited by Kurt Dopfer

• ISBN13: 9780521691314
• ISBN10: 0521691311
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

It is widely recognised that mainstream economics has failed to translate micro consistently into macro economics and to provide endogenous explanations for the continual changes in the economic system. Since the early 1980s, a growing number of economists have been trying to provide answers to these two key questions by applying an evolutionary approach. This new departure has yielded a rich literature with enormous variety, but the unifying principles connecting the various ideas and views presented are, as yet, not apparent. This volume brings together fifteen original articles from scholars - each of whom has made a significant contribution to the field - in their common effort to reconstruct economics as an evolutionary science. Using meso economics as an analytical entity to bridge micro and macro economics as well as static and dynamic realms, a unified economic theory emerges, offering an entirely new approach to the foundations of economics.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	viii
List of figures	x
List of tables	xiii
Prolegomenon
1 Evolutionary economics: a theoretical framework	3
KURT DOPFER
I Ontological foundations
A Evolutionary physics: a non-Cartesian bridge to economics
2 The rediscovery of value and the opening of economics	61	(1)
ILYA PRIGOGINE
3 Synergetics: from physics to economics	70	(1)
HERMANN HAKEN
B Evolutionary biology: the Mecca of economics
4 Darwinism, altruism and economics	89	(1)
HERBERT A. SIMON
5 Decomposition and growth: biological metaphors in economics from the 1880's to the 1980's	105	(1)
GEOFFREY M. HODGSON
C Evolutionary history: reconciling economic reality with theory
6 Path dependence in economic processes: implications for policy analysis in dynamical system contexts	151	(1)
PAUL A. DAVID
7 Is there a theory of economic history?	195	(1)
JOEL MOKYR
II A framework for evolutionary analysis
A Evolutionary microeconomics
8 Towards an evolutionary theory of production	223	(1)
SIDNEY G. WINTER
9 Learning in evolutionary environments	255	(1)
GIOVANNI DOSI, LUIGI MARENGO AND GIORGIO FAGIOLO
10 The evolutionary perspective on organizational change and the theory of the firm	339	(28)
ULRICH WITT
B Evolutionary mesoeconomics
11 The self-organizational perspective on economic evolution: a unifying paradigm	367	(24)
JOHN FOSTER
12 Evolutionary concepts in relation to evolutionary economics	391	(40)
J. STANLEY METCALFE
13 Understanding social and economic systems as evolutionary complex systems	431	(30)
PETER M. ALLEN
C Evolutionary macroeconomics
14 Perspectives on technological evolution	461	(11)
RICHARD R. NELSON
15 Evolutionary economic dynamics: persistent cycles, disruptive technology and the trade-off between stability and complexity	472	(34)
PING CHEN
16 Evolutionary theorizing on economic growth	506	(34)
GERALD SILVERBERG AND BART VERSPAGEN
Index of topics	540	(25)
Index of names	565