Deducing Principles of Economics from Ontological Constraints on Information

Carsten Herrmann-Pillath

Journal of Economic Issues, 2008, vol. 42, issue 2, 317-325

Abstract: Institutional economics posits a tension between technological progress and institutional change. I reformulate this idea in the context of universal evolutionary theory, starting out from the definition of knowledge as a set of evolving rules with physical substance. From this follows: 1) the theory of the economic agent has to be based on the analysis of phylogenetic constraints on the brain/mind, and 2) the evolution of knowledge manifests the Handicap Principle, in the sense that truthful information in universal systems of communication comes at a loss of adaptive efficiency. This vindicates the original institutionalist theory.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1080/00213624.2008.11507141

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