NDLI: Towards a non-Darwinian Theory of Institutional Change

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Towards a non-Darwinian Theory of Institutional Change

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Colombatto, Enrico
Copyright Year	2003
Abstract	The paper emphasizes two flaws in mainstream economics: the failure to understand actual human behavior in many real contexts and the failure to take account of transaction costs. By emphasizing the role of knowledge, institutions, transaction costs and path dependence, new institutional economics has provided a powerful answer to these shortcomings. Nevertheless, a number of questions remain open. In particular, path dependence is far from being a continuous process. Its dynamics and its irregularities are by and large unexplained. Hence, a strong need for a convincing evolutionary theory of environmental change. This article does not deny the validity of the Darwinian view applied to the theory of the firm and of competition in a free-market economy. The paper, however, maintains that the natural-selection process that characterizes the Darwinian approach is ill suited to describe economic evolutionary processes. It is shown that a combination of functional analysis and natural selection may indeed be a better solution, for it solves some of the puzzles raised by public choice theory without violating the fundamental tenets of the new institutional economics approach. Still, although this combined view may well explain why the institutional features are retained by the system, it does not clarify why they are introduced in the first place. A third possibility is put forward in the second part of the paper, where a new evolutionary theory is suggested. Within this framework, agents are assumed to behave according to their preferences within the existing rules of the game. At the same time, new ideas and sometimes new ideologies may influence their behavioral patterns. The combination between needs and ideologies generates environmental change, especially if so-called ‘ideological entrepreneurs’ are able to transform latent and shared beliefs into an institutional project and enforce it.
Starting Page	1
Ending Page	25
Page Count	25
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13876996
Journal	Journal of Bioeconomics
Volume Number	5
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15736989
Language	English
Publisher	Kluwer Academic Publishers
Publisher Date	2003-01-01
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Economic Theory Methodology and the History of Economic Thought Environmental Economics Law and Economics Political Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Geography, Planning and Development Economics and Econometrics

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