The Evolution of Economic Diversity

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.

1. Introduction: the co-evolution of economics and biology and the evolution of diversity Antonio Nicita and Ugo Pagano A. Natural Selection and Social Sciences 2. The origin of organizational species Ugo Pagano 3. Biological and cultural evolution: aspects of dynamics, statistics and optimization Marcus Fieldman 4. The evolution of evaluators Daniel C Dennet B. The Multiplicity of Learning Paths 5. Path dependent learning, and the evolution of beliefs and behaviours Paul A David 6. Learning dynamics, Lock-in, and equilibrium selection in experimental co-ordination games Vincent Crawford 7. On the dynamics of cognition and actions. An assessment of some models of learning and evolution Giovanni Dosi, G Fagiolo and L. Marengo C. Technical Change in Learning Paths 8. Evolutionary theories of economic change Richard R Nelson 9. Diversity and irreversibility in scientific and technological systems: the evolution of an industry network F. Pammollo, A Bonaccorsi, L Orsenigo, M Riccabomi and G Turchetti 10. The firm as an evolutionary enforcement device Antonio Nicita D. The Evolution of Norms 11. Lecture notes on equilibrium selection and the evolution of norms Robert Boyd 12. Endogenous interactions G. Mailath, L. Samuleson and A. Shaked 13. Social networks and efficient evolutionary outcomes in recurrent common interest games Stefano Vannucci 14. Community governance: An evolutionary analysis Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis 15. Cooperation and exclusion in networks Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis 16. Evolution of money Katsuhito Iwai