Economics and Evolution: Bringing Life Back into Economics - Softcover

Hodgson, Geoffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0745614701 ISBN 13: 9780745614700

Publisher: Polity Press, 1994

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey M. Hodgson is the author of several previous books including Economics and Institutions (Polity, 1988) and The Democractic Economy (Penguin, 1984).

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: Polity Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0745614701
• ISBN 13: 9780745614700
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400