An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
- ISBN-10
- 0674041437
- ISBN-13
- 9780674041431
- Category
- Business & Economics
- Pages
- 454
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1985-10-15
- Publisher
- Harvard University Press
- Author
- Richard R. Nelson
Description
This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Modern Evolutionary Economics: An Overview
By Constance E. Helfat, Sidney G. Winter, Richard R. NelsonThis approach to economics, heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Schumpeter, saw a revival as an alternative way of thinking about economic advancement as a result of Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter's seminal book, An Evolutionary ...
-
Evolutionary Theories of Economic and Technological Change: Present Status and Future Prospects
By , Stan MetcalfeAt the same time, the ground is laid for a more generalized concept of innovation and experimentation and their relation to routine activities. The book is intended for economists.
-
Modern Evolutionary Economics: An Overview
By Constance E. Helfat, Sidney G. Winter, Richard R. NelsonThis approach to economics, heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Schumpeter, saw a revival as an alternative way of thinking about economic advancement as a result of Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter's seminal book, An Evolutionary ...
-
The Evolutionary Foundations of Economics
By Kurt DopferThis 2005 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.
-
Understanding Economic Change: Advances in Evolutionary Economics
By Ulrich Witt, Andreas ChaiHow does economic theory explain what is going on? In this volume, experts in the field discuss the advances that evolutionary economics has made in exploring questions like these.
-
Law, Economics and Evolutionary Theory
By Gralf-Peter Calliess, Peer ZumbansenThe essays in this volume, authored by both legal scholars and economists, constitute lively and critical engagements between law and economics and new institutional economics from the perspectives of legal and evolutionary theory.
-
Evolutionary and Neo-Schumpeterian Approaches to Economics
By Lars MagnussonEssays in Social Value Theory: A Neoinstitutionalist Contribution. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Veblen, T. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of the Evolution of Institutions. New York: B.W. Huebsch. Veblen, T. 1914.
-
Evolutionary Economics: Program and Scope
By Kurt DopferTool, Marc R. (1986): Essays in Social Value Theory. Armonk: M. E. Sharpe. Tool, Marc R. (1985 [1979]). The Discretionary Economy: A Normative Theory of Political Economy. Boulder: Westview Press. Tool, Marc R. (1977): “A Social Value ...
-
The General Theory of Economic Evolution
By Jason Potts, Kurt DopferPerez C (2003) Technological revolutions and financial capital: The dynamics of bubbles and golden ages. Edward Elgar: Cheltenham. ... Porter M (1990) The competitive advantage of nations. Free Press: New York.
-
Complexity and Evolution: Toward a New Synthesis for Economics
By David S. Wilson, Alan KirmanIn this book, leading scholars examine these two bodies of theory, exploring their possible impact on economics.