Economics and Evolution: Bringing Life Back into Economics

by Geoffrey M. Hodgson

Economic theory is currently at a crossroads, where many leading mainstream economists are calling for a more realistic and practical orientation for economic science. Indeed, many are suggesting that economics should be reconstructed on evolutionary lines.

This book is about the application to economics of evolutionary ideas from biology. It is not about selfish genes or determination of our behavior by genetic code. The idea that evolution supports a laissez-faire policy is rebutted. The conception of evolution as progress toward greater perfection, along with the competitive individualism sometimes inferred from the notion of the "survival of the fittest," is found to be problematic. Hodgson explores the ambiguities inherent in biology and the problems involved in applying ideas of past economic thinkers--including Malthus, Smith, Marx, Marshall, Veblen, Schumpeter, and Hayek--and argues that the new evolutionary economics can learn much from the many differing conceptions of economic evolution.
"This is a work of enormous perceptivity and subtlety as well as judiciousness of interpretation and critique . . . [that] establish[es] Hodgson as the leading institutional theorist, and as one of the leading evolutionary theorists, of his generation." --Warren J. Samuels
"A daring and successful attempt to expunge the monopoly of reductionist and mechanistic thinking over evolutionary theory . . . a must for anyone who is interested not only in the foundations of economics, but also in the foundations of social theory." --Elias L. Khalil, Ohio State University
Geoffrey M. Hodgson is University Lecturer in Economics, Judge Institute for Management Studies, University of Cambridge.

Genres: Economics

381 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 1993

Reviews

[Brian Gladish]

I am only through Part I, but I think this is a particularly important book. It's clear from some of the author's asides that he is an interventionist, but that does not take away from the scope and breadth of the work, which is amazing. Bruce Caldwell has authored an article criticizing Hodgson's analysis of Hayek ("Hodgson on Hayek: a critique"), so not everything should be taken without question. I intend to reference the book extensively in a paper that I'm writing.

The size of the bibliography is overwhelming and could be the source of reading material for years to come.

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work from Geoff Hodgson