Economic Development from the Perspective of Evolutionary Economic Theory

Richard Nelson

Oxford Development Studies, 2008, vol. 36, issue 1, 9-21

Abstract: Sanjaya Lall saw economic development as an evolutionary process, with technological learning at its heart. This essay lays out the key differences between an evolutionary theory of economic activity and change, and the neoclassical theory as articulated in economic textbooks. It argues that only an evolutionary theory fits what is known about how technological learning progresses. It also argues for recognition, right at the basis of economic theorizing, that modern economic systems contain a rich mix of institutions, not simply the firms, households and markets that are in neoclassical theory, and that the roles of government cannot be adequately understood as simply responses to “market failures”. It develops a view that long-run economic change must be understood as involving the co-evolution of technologies in use and the institutional structures supporting and regulating these.

Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (72)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600810701848037 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Economic Development from the Perspective of Evolutionary Economic Theory (2007)
Working Paper: Economic Development from the Perspective of Evolutionary Economic Theory (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:oxdevs:v:36:y:2008:i:1:p:9-21

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CODS20

DOI: 10.1080/13600810701848037

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Development Studies is currently edited by Jo Boyce and Frances Stewart

More articles in Oxford Development Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().