Evolutionary and Neo-Schumpeterian Approaches to Economics - Recent Economic Thought 1994 edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: 1. The Neo-Schumpeterian and Evolutionary Approach to Economics - an Introduction; L. Magnusson. Part I: Evolutionary Theory. 2. What is Evolutionary Economics? R. Langlois, M. J. Everett. 3. The Unit which Evolves: Linking Self-Reproduction and Self-Interest; M. Hutter. 4. On the Nature of Economic Evolution: John R. Commons and the Metaphor of Artificial Selection; Y. Ramstad. Part II: Neo-Schumpeterian Dynamics. 5. The Phenomenon of Economic Change: Neoclassical vs. Schumpeterian Approaches; K. Dopfer. 6. The Theory of the Firm and the Theory of Economic Growth; G. Eliasson. 7. Evolutionary Regimes and Industrial Dynamics; G. Dosi, F. Malerba, L. Orsenigo. 8. The Role of Firm Difference in an Evolutionary Theory of Technical Advance; R. Nelson. Part III: Critique and New Challenges. 9. The Integration of Theory and History: Methodology and Ideology in Schumpeter's Economics; W. Lazonick. 10. Neo-Schumpeterians and Economic Theory; A. Heertje. Rethinking Economics. From GNP-Growth to Ecological Sustainability; P. Soderbaum. Innovations and Institutions: an Historical Approach; L. Magnusson, G. Marklund. Index."Publisher Marketing: not gentle to the capitalists" (Schumpeter, 1991). Thus, by instead portraying the conflict between entreprenuerial activity and the sociology of the modern state, he came quite close to the analysis carried out by Thorstein Veblen some decades earlier, who emphasized the conflict between p- gressive technology and the institutions of a contemporary "predatory dynastic State of early modern times, superficially altered by a suffusion of democratic and parliamentary institutions" (Veblen, 1964, p. 398). Modern neo-Schumpeterian approaches have continued to build on this groundwork provided by their master. During recent years there has been a great upsurge of discussion on technology, innovations, technological regimes, etc. from the dynamic perspective provided by Schumpeter (Dosi, 1984, Rosegger, 1985; Dosi et al., 1988). Thus the search process for (t- poral) extra profits has been stressed and has been used for modelling attempts. The wider institutional framework for technological change and innovation activity has also been strongly developed more recently. Hence emphasis has grown in the study of technological and industrial regimes, path dependency, and the network approach, developed recently, that social relationships structure the opportunities and constraints that face firms and agents that, for example, carry out innovations (Snehota, 1990).

Contributor Bio:  Magnusson, Lars Lars Magnusson is Professor of Economic History at Uppsala University.