Economics and Evolution: Bringing Life Back into Economics (Economics, Cognition, and Society) - Hardcover

Hodgson, Geoffrey M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0472105221 ISBN 13: 9780472105229

Publisher: The University of Michigan Press, 2018

Synopsis

Economic theory is currently at a crossroads, where many leading mainstream economists are calling for a more realistic and practical orientation for economic science. Indeed, many are suggesting that economics should be reconstructed on evolutionary lines.

This book is about the application to economics of evolutionary ideas from biology. It is not about selfish genes or determination of our behavior by genetic code. The idea that evolution supports a laissez-faire policy is rebutted. The conception of evolution as progress toward greater perfection, along with the competitive individualism sometimes inferred from the notion of the "survival of the fittest," is found to be problematic. Hodgson explores the ambiguities inherent in biology and the problems involved in applying ideas of past economic thinkers--including Malthus, Smith, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, Schumpeter, and Hayek--and argues that the new evolutionary economics can learn much from the many differing conceptions of economic evolution.

"This is a work of enormous perceptivity and subtlety as well as judiciousness of interpretation and critique . . . [that] establish[es] Hodgson as the leading institutional theorist, and as one of the leading evolutionary theorists, of his generation." --Warren J. Samuels

"A daring and successful attempt to expunge the monopoly of reductionist and mechanistic thinking over evolutionary theory . . . a must for anyone who is interested not only in the foundations of economics, but also in the foundations of social theory." --Elias L. Khalil, Ohio State University

Geoffrey M. Hodgson is University Lecturer in Economics, Judge Institute for Management Studies, University of Cambridge.

Economic theory is currently at a crossroads, where many leading mainstream economists are calling for a more realistic and practical orientation for economic science. Indeed, many are suggesting that economics should be reconstructed on evolutionary lines.

This book is about the application to economics of evolutionary ideas from biology. It is not about selfish genes or determination of our behavior by genetic code. The idea that evolution supports a laissez-faire policy is rebutted. The conception of evolution as progress toward greater perfection, along with the competitive individualism sometimes inferred from the notion of the "survival of the fittest," is found to be problematic. Hodgson explores the ambiguities inherent in biology and the problems involved in applying ideas of past economic thinkers--including Malthus, Smith, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, Schumpeter, and Hayek--and argues that the new evolutionary economics can learn much from the many differing conceptions of economic evolution.

"This is a work of enormous perceptivity and subtlety as well as judiciousness of interpretation and critique . . . [that] establish[es] Hodgson as the leading institutional theorist, and as one of the leading evolutionary theorists, of his generation." --Warren J. Samuels

"A daring and successful attempt to expunge the monopoly of reductionist and mechanistic thinking over evolutionary theory . . . a must for anyone who is interested not only in the foundations of economics, but also in the foundations of social theory." --Elias L. Khalil, Ohio State University

Geoffrey M. Hodgson is University Lecturer in Economics, Judge Institute for Management Studies, University of Cambridge.

About this title

Review

"This is a work of enormous perceptivity and subtlety as well as judiciousness of interpretation and critique...[that establishes]] Hodgson as the leading institutional theorist, and as one of the leading evolutionary theorists, of his generation."

From the Back Cover

Economic theory is currently at a crossroads. While in some quarters the preoccupation with a narrow and largely empty formalism reaches unprecedented heights, many leading mainstream economists are calling for a more realistic and practical orientation for economic science. Indeed, there are now many voices suggesting that economics should be reconstructed on evolutionary lines, and a new ′evolutionary economics′ has emerged from the 1980s.

This book is about the application to economics of evolutionary ideas learnt from biology. It contains an examination of evolutionary ideas of past economic thinkers, including Mandeville, Malthus, Smith, Marx, Menger, Marshall, Veblen, Schumpeter and Hayek. Hodgson argues that the new evolutionary economics can learn much from the differing conceptions of economic evolution which have been developed in the past.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0472105221
• ISBN 13: 9780472105229
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400