Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/32647
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 0910
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
According to the advocates of a Generalized Darwinism (GD), the three core Darwinian principles of variation, selection and retention (or inheritance) can be used as a general framework for the development of theories explaining evolutionary processes in the socio­economic domain. Even though these are originally biological terms, GD argues that they can be re-defined in such a way as to abstract from biological particulars. We argue that this approach does not only risk to misguide positive theory development, but that it may also impede the construction of a coherent evolutionary approach to policy implications. This is shown with respect to the positive, instrumental and normative theories such an approach is supposed to be based upon.
Subjects: 
Evolution
Selection
Darwinism
Ontology
Continuity Hypothesis
Evolutionary Theory of Policy-Making
JEL: 
A1
B4
B52
D6
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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