An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
Author: Richard R. Nelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1985-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674041431


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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.


An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
Language: en
Pages: 456
Authors: Richard R. Nelson
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 1985-10-15 - Publisher: Harvard University Press

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This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique
Economic Evolution and Revolution in Historical Time
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Authors: Paul W. Rhode
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-01-28 - Publisher: Stanford University Press

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This book challenges the static, ahistorical models on which Economics continues to rely. These models presume that markets operate on a "frictionless" plane wh
The General Theory of Economic Evolution
Language: en
Pages: 153
Authors: Kurt Dopfer
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-09-27 - Publisher: Routledge

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The first book to chart the development of the field of evolutionary economics, this book provides an integrated generic framework to define the rules of an eco
The Economic Evolution of American Health Care
Language: en
Pages: 220
Authors: David Dranove
Categories: Medical
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-01-10 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

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The American health care industry has undergone such dizzying transformations since the 1960s that many patients have lost confidence in a system they find too
The Evolution of Economic Ideas
Language: en
Pages: 260
Authors: Phyllis Deane
Categories: Business & Economics
Type: BOOK - Published: 1978-10-05 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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An introduction to the history of economics for undergraduate students. Puts some of the current theoretical controversies into long-term perspective by tracing