Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/247360 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Munich Discussion Paper No. 2021-1
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Volkswirtschaftliche Fakultät, München
Abstract: 
The new institutional economics has one of its roots in evolutionary thinking. The idea is that there is competition among organizational forms. Some forms spread faster than others and thereby displace and eventually destroy the less well adapted forms. In the end, the most 'efficient' organizational formation will survive, where 'efficiency' is a social analogue for biological fitness. The process is predominately envisaged as a process of what I am going to term 'blind evolution': a combination of random variation and selection. The idea of randomness is put into question. If evolution is is to be able to work successfully on complex organisms or organizations, it is necessary that variation occurs in a patterned fashion with systematically correlated changes. Once the importance of patterned variation is established, it must be asked where the patterns come from. It will be argued that, for the purpose of the social sciences, these patterns are generated by psychological regularities, both cognitive and emotional. Features of patterning are discussed.
Subjects: 
evolution
evodevo
evo-devo
variation
selection
institutional economics
social psychology
channeling by constraints
hitchhiking
radiation
founder effects
irreversibly
functional shifts
evolutionary detours
punctuation
JEL: 
B15
B25
B52
D02
D23
E14
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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