On the Difficulty of Evolutionary Analysis

Anne Mayhew

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 1998, vol. 22, issue 4, 449-61

Abstract: Thorstein Veblen's 100-year-old question--'Why is Economics Not an Evolutionary Science?'--remains relevant. Evolutionary analysis, even for those social scientists who trace their intellectual heritage to evolutionary thought, has been difficult for three reasons: effective incorporation of time requires a respectful and detailed treatment of the past; dominant social science paradigms have made it difficult to account for novelty; and concern with policy and current issues of social debate creates a tendency towards taxonomy. The twentieth-century history of economic anthropology and institutional economics illustrates that a failure to overcome these difficulties leaves Veblen's vision unfulfilled. Copyright 1998 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1998
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