The Origins of Meso Economics - Schumpeter's Legacy

Kurt Dopfer ()

Papers on Economics and Evolution from Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography

Abstract: The paper unravels the subversive nature of Schumpeter’s proposition that entrepreneurs carry out innovations (the micro level), that swarms of followers imitate them (meso) and that, as a consequence, 'creative destruction’ leads to economic development 'from within’ (macro). It is argued that Schumpeter paved the way for a new micro–meso–macro framework in economics. Centre stage is meso. Its essential characteristic is bimodality, meaning that one idea (the generic rule) can be physically actualised by many agents (a population). Ideas can relate to others, and, in this way, meso constitutes a structure component of a 'deep’ invisible macro structure. Equally, the rule actualisation process unfolds over time – modelled in the paper as a meso trajectory with three phases of rule origination, selective adoption and retention – and here meso represents a process component of a visible 'surface’ structure. The universal macro measure with a view to the appropriateness of meso components is generic correspondence. At the level of ideas, its measure is order; at that of actual relative adoption frequencies, it is generic equilibrium. Economic development occurs at the deep level as transition from one generic rule to another, inducing a change of order, and at the surface level as the new rule is adopted, destroying an old equilibrium and establishing a new one. The final third of the paper discusses a few of the rich set of major contributions to the Neo-Schumpeterian – micro-meso-macro - programme

Keywords: Mesoeconomics; Micro-Meso-Macro-Framework; Schumpeterian Economics; Evolutionary Ontology Length 44 pages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A11 A12 B12 B52 B53 E11 M13 O11 O12 O31 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-sog
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-10

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