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Economics and Evolution

9781858985558 Edward Elgar Publishing
Edited by Jan Reijnders, Associate Professor of Economics, Utrecht School of Economics, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Publication Date: 1997 ISBN: 978 1 85898 555 8 Extent: 224 pp
Economics and Evolution presents an overview of the principal characteristics of the modern evolutionary approach and offers insights into the ideas of some of its important representatives and fields of application.

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The evolutionary approach to economics can be traced back as far as the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the work of Darwin, Smith and Malthus. These ideas have gradually developed since that time through Marx, Veblen and Marshall, and have recently experienced considerable attention. This book considers the development of evolutionary economics and its place in economic thought today.

The book begins with a concise history of evolutionary economics which develops to examine the variety of approaches within the subject. The discussion continues with a rigorous analysis of why, in contrast to popular belief, evolutionary economics is not alien to neoclassical economics, arguing that it may even be considered to complement neoclassical economics. Continuing along this theme the firm is discussed from an evolutionary and neoclassical standpoint. Leading on from this is a discussion of modern model building in evolutionary economics and its relationship with Schumpeter''s developmental work. Model building is examined further in relation to endogenous technological change and economic growth, and the effect that technological change and innovation can have on the spatial distribution of new industry.

This book will be of special interest to evolutionary and post Keynesian economists and those interested in technological change and innovation.
Critical Acclaim
‘. . . the combination of these papers does provide a useful amalgam of the several streams of intellectual endeavour which come under the evolutionary economics banner. In summing up this volume overall it is interesting to consider the range and calibre of the distinguished and able economists who have argued over many years for the inclusion of (broadly defined) evolutionary ideas in mainstream economic discourse.’
– Peter Mottershead, Kyklos
Contributors
Contributors: E.S. Andersen, R. Boschma, N.J. Foss, G. Hodgson, J. Reijnders, G. Silverberg, B. van der Knaap, B. Verspagen, J.J. Vromen
Contents
Contents: 1. Variety in the Garden of Heterodox Economics: An Introduction (J.P.G. Reijnders) 2. Economics and Evolution and the Evolution of Economics (G.M. Hodgson) 3. Evolutionary Economics: Precursors, Paradigmatic Propositions, Puzzles and Prospects (J.J. Vromen) 4. Evolutionary Economics and the Theory of the Firm: Assessments and Proposals for Research (N.J. Foss) 5. Neo- and Post-Schumpeterian Contributions to Evolutionary Economics (E.S. Andersen) 6. Economic Growth: An Evolutionary Perspective (G. Silverberg and B. Verspagen) 7. New Technology and Windows of Locational Opportunity: Indeterminacy, Creativity and Chance (R. Boschma and B. van der Knaap) Index

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