ABSTRACT
The traditional role of evolutionary theory in the social sciences has been to explain the existence of an object in terms of the survival of the fittest. In economics this approach has acted as a justification for hypotheses such as profit maximisation, or the existence of institutions in terms of their overall efficiency. This volume challenges that view and argues that one of the first tasks of economic theory should be to explain the enormous diversity of institutional arrangements that has characterised human societies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter 1|17 pages
Introduction
The co-evolution of economics and biology and the evolution of diversity
part I|64 pages
Natural selection and the social sciences
chapter 3|18 pages
Biological and cultural evolution
Aspects of dynamics, statistics and optimization
part II|114 pages
The multiplicity of learning paths
chapter 5|48 pages
Path-dependent learning and the evolution of beliefs and behaviors
Implications of Bayesian adaptation under computationally bounded rationality
chapter 7|33 pages
On the dynamics of cognition and actions
An assessment of some models of learning and evolution
part III|74 pages
Technical change in organizations and economic growth
chapter 9|24 pages
Variety and irreversibility in scientific and technological systems
The evolution of an industry network
part IV|161 pages
The evolution of norms
