A perspective on the evolution of evolutionary economics

Abstract

Modern evolutionary economics has come a long way from its beginnings in the writings of a few economists in the 1970s and 1980s. To a considerable extent, its evolution has been the result of the findings of empirical research, much but not all of it motivated by an explicit or implicit evolutionary perspective, which has fed back to modify and enrich the way evolutionary economists view the way modern economies work. This article focuses on developments that have broadened and sharpened the evolutionary perspective on the capabilities and behavior of firms, the processes and institutions involved in technological progress, and competition and dynamics in industries where technological opportunities are expanding. In the course of these developments, the conception of what it means to propose that a dynamic process is evolutionary has evolved. The article considers, as well, where evolutionary economics might be going from where it is now.