Complexity Thinking and Evolutionary Economic Geography

Ronald Martin and Peter Sunley ()

No 703, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) from Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography

Abstract: Thus far, most of the work towards the construction of an evolutionary economic geography has drawn upon a particular version of evolutionary economics, namely the Nelson-Winter framework, which blends Darwinian concepts and metaphors (especially variety, selection, novelty and inheritance) and elements of a behavioural theory of the firm. Much less attention has been directed to an alternative conception based on complexity theory, yet in recent years complexity theory has increasingly been concerned with the general attributes of evolutionary natural and social systems. In this paper we explore the idea of the economic landscape as a complex adaptive system. We identify several key notions of what is being called the new ‘complexity economics’, and examine whether and in what ways these can be used to help inform an evolutionary perspective for understanding the uneven development and adaptive transformation of the economic landscape.

Keywords: complexity theory; evolution; economic landscape; networks; emergence; regional adaptation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B52 O18 R11 R12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2007-04, Revised 2007-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-geo, nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (119)

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http://econ.geo.uu.nl/peeg/peeg0703.pdf Version April 2007 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Chapter: Complexity Thinking and Evolutionary Economic Geography (2010)
Journal Article: Complexity thinking and evolutionary economic geography (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egu:wpaper:0703

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