Action Plans and Socio-Economic Evolutionary Change

Félix-Fernando Muñoz () and María Isabel Encinar
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María Isabel Encinar: Departamento de Análisis Económico (Teoría e Historia Económica). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

No 2007/07, Working Papers in Economic Theory from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Department of Economic Analysis (Economic Theory and Economic History)

Abstract: An important challenge to evolutionary economics consists of how to tackle with the dramatic tension between purposeful human action and the ‘blindness’ of evolutionary processes. On the one hand, economic action, if rational, has to be planned (which implies purposeful ordering of the means used to achieve objectives). On the other hand, an evolutionary process involves both the emergence of novelties (both intended innovations and unintended consequences of actions) and properties that manifest at meso and macro levels. Some recent papers have insisted on these issues. However, few analytical tools are yet available to cope with both, the analysis of intended dynamic action and ‘blind’ evolution. In this paper we propose the so-called ‘action plan approach’, a theoretical framework which could be useful for this task. The development of tools that permit us to analyze how individuals construct their plans, the projective (conjectural) and interactive nature of action, and the learning processes involved in ‘planning and acting’, may help us identifying and understanding new sources of complexity of economic processes. The close relationship of the ‘action plan approach’ with other systemic conceptual approaches is also highlighted.

Keywords: connections, action plans; novelty; intentionality; evolutionary economic process (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B41 B52 D89 O10 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2007-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo and nep-pke
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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