
Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics
Routledge (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 27. June 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
464 pages
978-1-032-53339-1 (ISBN)
Description
While dating from post-Classical economists such as Thorstein Veblen and Joseph Schumpeter, the inception of the modern field of evolutionary economics is usually dated to the early 1980s. Broadly speaking, evolutionary economics sees the economy as undergoing continual, evolutionary change. Evolutionary change indicates that these changes were not planned, but rather were the result of innovations and selection processes. These often involved winners and losers, but most importantly, they resulted in actors learning what was and was not working.
Evolutionary economics, in contrast to mainstream economics, emphasises the relevance of variables such as technology, institutions, decision rules, routines, or consumer preferences for explaining the complex evolutionary changes in the economy. In so doing, evolutionary economics significantly broadens the scope of economic analysis, and sheds new light on key concepts and issues of the discipline.
This handbook draws on a stellar cast list of international contributors, ranging from the founders of the field to the newest voices. The volume explores the current state of the art in the field of evolutionary economics at the levels of the micro (e.g. firms and households), meso (e.g. industries and institutions), and macro (e.g. economic policy, structure, and growth).
Overall, the Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics provides an excellent overview of current trends and issues in this rapidly developing field.
Evolutionary economics, in contrast to mainstream economics, emphasises the relevance of variables such as technology, institutions, decision rules, routines, or consumer preferences for explaining the complex evolutionary changes in the economy. In so doing, evolutionary economics significantly broadens the scope of economic analysis, and sheds new light on key concepts and issues of the discipline.
This handbook draws on a stellar cast list of international contributors, ranging from the founders of the field to the newest voices. The volume explores the current state of the art in the field of evolutionary economics at the levels of the micro (e.g. firms and households), meso (e.g. industries and institutions), and macro (e.g. economic policy, structure, and growth).
Overall, the Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics provides an excellent overview of current trends and issues in this rapidly developing field.
Reviews / Votes
"I wish that this book had been available to me while I was in graduate school. This handbook has immediately become my 'go-to' recommendation for undergraduate and graduate students seeking the knowledge of evolutionary economics and an organised entry point into the vast literature across many disciplines it comprises and has inspired. It has also become an instant indispensable reference in my own research. No better editors could have been proposed for such a volume, and they have delivered, what is presented here is nothing less than a comprehensive, organised survey of the entire body of thought put forward by those who see the economy as a complex evolving system."Dr Brendan Markey-Towler, University of Queensland, Australia
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Postgraduate and Undergraduate
Illustrations
24 s/w Abbildungen, 24 s/w Zeichnungen, 13 s/w Tabellen
13 Tables, black and white; 24 Line drawings, black and white; 24 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 174 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
840 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-032-53339-1 (9781032533391)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Kurt Dopfer | Richard R. Nelson | Jason Potts
Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics
E-Book
11/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€67.49
Available for download

Kurt Dopfer | Richard R. Nelson | Jason Potts
Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics
E-Book
11/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€67.49
Available for download

Kurt Dopfer | Richard R. Nelson | Jason Potts
Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics
Book
11/2023
1st Edition
Routledge
€334.60
Shipment within 15-20 days
Persons
Kurt Dopfer is Professor Emeritus at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.
Richard R. Nelson is Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, New York, USA.
Jason Potts is Professor at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.
Andreas Pyka is Professor at University Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
Richard R. Nelson is Professor Emeritus at Columbia University, New York, USA.
Jason Potts is Professor at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.
Andreas Pyka is Professor at University Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
Editor
University of St Gallen, Switzerland
Columbia University, USA
RMIT University, Australia
Hohenheim University, Germany
Content
Introduction: Evolutionary economics: A navigational guide PART I Foundational issues and theoretical domains 1 Joseph A. Schumpeter: One of the founders of evolutionary economics 2 Thorstein Bunde Veblen: A founder of evolutionary economics 3 The foundational evolutionary traverse of Richard R. Nelson and Sidney G. Winter 4 F. A. Hayek and evolutionary Austrian economics 5 Kenneth Boulding's contribution to evolutionary economics 6 Evolutionary economics and psychology: Where we are, where we could go 7 Evolutionary cultural science 8 Evolutionary economics and economic history 9 Why an evolutionary economic geography? The spatial economy as a complex evolving system 10 Darwin's ideas and their mixed reception in evolutionary economics 11 Computational evolutionary economics: Minimal principle and minimum intelligence 12 Evolutionary modelling and the rule-based approach 13 Contingency in evolutionary economics: Causality and comparative analysis Marco Lehmann-Waffenschmidt 14 The firm as an experimental decision maker 15 Evolutionary economics, routines, and dynamic capabilities 16 Routines 17 Organizational routines 18 Memes 19 The path dependence of knowledge and innovation 20 Evolutionary consumer theory 21 Evolutionary price theory 22 The coevolution of innovation and demand PART II Evolutionary economic policy and political economy 23 Evolutionary economic policy and competitiveness 24 Smart specialisation 25 Evolutionary economic geography and policy 26 Global knowledge embeddedness 27 Macro-evolutionary modelling of climate policies 28 The visible hand of innovation policy 29 Generalized rules, Nelson-Winter routines, and Ostrom rules 30 Democracy as an evolutionary process 31 Public entrepreneurship in economic evolution 32 Evolutionary political economy 33 Division of labor as co-evolutionary process of ecology, technology, culture, organization, and knowledge 34 Evolutionary economics and LDCs: An African perspective 35 Globalization and its governance in an evolutionary perspective