Veblen's evolutionary programme: a promise unfulfilled

Article Abstract:

Thorstein Veblen called for economics to be reconstructed as a modern evolutionary science, in a work published in 1898 called 'Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?'. He saw neoclassical and classical economics as too static. Veblen focused too narrowly on technology which he saw as promoting economic change. Economic change can be stimulated by a wide range of factors, not just technology. There is still a need to develop an evolutionary economics and to develop a framework which can help analyse institutional change.

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On the evolution of Thorstein Veblen's evolutionary economics

Article Abstract:

Thorstein Veblen argued that economics could move away from a static, individualistic perspective. He wrote at a time when biological and social phenomena were seen as similar. He opposed biological reductionism, and found the views of Karl Marx as too constraining. Veblen's views followed lines set out by Charles Darwin, in an attempt to avoid structural, individualistic and biological reductionism. One key influence on his behavior may have come from C.Lloyd Morgan, a philosopher and biologist.

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Throstein Veblen and post-Darwinian economics

Article Abstract:

Thornstein Veblen believed that knowledge of biological sciences was crucial to the study of economics. He focused on the evoultionary aspect ofscience as a method of understanding technological development processes in a capitalist economy. However, Veblen did not establish a static equilibrium analysis for his purposes. He considered his ideas as post-Darwinian economics.

History

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