Evolutionary Economics

Evolutionary economics is a relatively new economic methodology that is modeled on biology. It stresses complex interdependencies, competition, growth, and resource constraints.

Conventional economic reasoning begins with the definition of scarcity, then assumes the existence of a “rational agent” bent solely on the attainment of one goal — the maximization of her/his welfare as defined by that agent. The scheme of valuation (“preferences” or “tastes”) used by the decision-maker is also assumed to be constant and native to the agent (“independent preferences“). Given the foregoing stipulations, the determination of the “rational choice” for any agent becomes a straightforward exercise in the differential calculus.

Evolutionary economics derives from a more modern tradition of inquiry, which does not take the characteristics of either the objects of choice or of the decision-maker as fixed. It challenges the Newtonian worldview in economics in the similar manner, as it was challenged by Darwinian evolutionary theory in biology and by studies of self-organization in physics.

Since it is a new branch of economics, websites providing resources on this topic are yet   to come. Still we have something interesting to know. heres are the links -

Basic ideas ( this sites provides basic ideas on evolutionary economics)

Evolutionary Economics Inter alia

Wikipedia

Articles

What Economists Can Learn from Evolutionary Theorists by Paul Krugman

Richard R. Nelson, Evolutionary Theories of Cultural Change: An Empirical Perspective ["the standard articulations of a Universal Darwinism put forth by biologists and philosophers tends to be too narrow, in particular too much linked to the details of evolution in biology, to fit with what is known about cultural evolution."]

Economics of Happyness

Little by little, psychology’s insights into happiness and well-being are being integrated into economic theory and debate. Happiness has become one of the hot topics in economics over the last decade, with both the size and depth of the literature increasing at a rapid rate.

Though US-based psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Ed Diener and economists Richard Easterlin and Alan Krueger can take much credit, so too can the British ‘brat pack’ consisting of Warwick’s Andrew Oswald, Paris-based Andrew Clark, Dartmouth’s Danny Blanchflower and (as an honourary elder statesman), the LSE’s Richard Layard. The two Andrews were writing about this stuff years ago, when ‘respectable’ academic economists thought the topic barking.

What is particularly encouraging is that economists are starting seriously to tackle the major empirical and the theoretical challenges that this literature has uncovered. A new paper by Andrew Clark, Paul Fritjers and Michael A Shields, prepared for the Journal of Economic Literature, ups the ante. Relative Income, Happiness and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles (PDF) takes as its starting point Easterlin’s seminal 1974 paper which posed a paradox – that happiness does not appear to increase with income, once basic needs are fulfilled. The paper covers a lot of ground, including adaptation, social comparisons, relative income, utility and much more besides. There is a short but insightful description of the key challenges for empirical work. And to wrap it up, the authors explore some implications for economic theory and policy design.

A Letter to You

Our Blog access stat shows that this blog is to some extent could meet the expectations of the students of economics almost in no time. To move forward definitely we expect readers of this blog to write comments and provide information that they have. In one hand it will help others to get more information and at the same time they can have the multiplier effect. ideas, concepts information suggestions are most wellcome.

Very recently we recieved a comment that “economics is not only growth and development ……it is much broader …….”. We promise to provide jinformation  regarding new areas of economics.

New book online: Daron Acemoglu’s ‘Introduction to Modern Economic Growth’

MIT’s Daron Acemoglu came second only to Joseph Stiglitz.

He is really busy but still found time to write a magnum opus Introduction to Modern Economic Growth in Two parts.

Fortunately readers of this blog can access and download this book.

Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Parts 1 – 5

Introduction to Modern Economic Growth, Parts 6 – 9

In the preface, Acemoglu writes that the book is intended to serve two purposes:

First and foremost, this is a book about economic growth and long-run economic development. The process of economic growth and the sources of differences in economic performance across nations are some of the most interesting, important and challenging areas in modern social science. The primary purpose of this book is to introduce graduate students to these major questions and to the theoretical tools necessary for studying them. The book therefore strives to provide students with a strong background in dynamic economic analysis, since only such a background will enable a serious study of economic growth and economic development. It also tries to provide a clear discussion of the broad empirical patterns and historical processes underlying the current state of the world economy. This is motivated by my belief that to understand why some countries grow and some fail to do so, economists have to move beyond the mechanics of models and pose questions about the fundamental causes of economic growth.

In a somewhat different capacity, this book is also a graduate-level introduction to modern macroeconomics and dynamic economic analysis. It is sometimes commented that, unlike basic microeconomic theory, there is no core of current macroeconomic theory that is shared by all economists. This is not entirely true. While there is disagreement among macroeconomists about how to approach short-run macroeconomic phenomena and what the boundaries of macroeconomics should be, there is broad agreement about the workhorse models of dynamic macroeconomic analysis. These include the Solow growth model, the neoclassical growth model, the overlapping-generations model and models of technological change and technology adoption. Since these are all models of economic growth, a thorough treatment of modern economic growth can also provide (and perhaps should provide) an introduction to this core material of modern macroeconomics. Although there are several good graduate-level macroeconomic textbooks, they typically spend relatively little time on the basic core material and do not develop the links between modern macroeconomic analysis and economic dynamics on the one hand and general equilibrium theory on the other. In contrast, the current book does not cover any of the shortrun topics in macroeconomics, but provides a thorough and rigorous introduction to what I view to be the core of macroeconomics. Therefore, the second purpose of the book is to provide a first graduate-level course in modern macroeconomics.

A considerable achivement. Acemoglu asks readers to note that “this is a preliminary draft of the book manuscript. The draft certainly contains mistakes. Comments and suggestions for corrections are welcome.”