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2017 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

Behavior and Cognition of Economic Actors in Evolutionary Economics

verfasst von : Richard R. Nelson

Erschienen in: Foundations of Economic Change

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

An evolutionary perspective on the nature of economic activity requires a theory of human behavior and cognition that highlights human creativity and innovativeness, while at the same time recognizing that in many arenas of economic life change is slow and more routine aspects of behavior obtain. It is proposed that Herbert Simon’s conception of human behavior as largely “bounded rational” is capable of suiting both aspects. However, to be able to encompass the enormous advances humans have achieved over the years in their ability to meet a variety of wants, a theory of behavior and cognition suitable for evolutionary economics needs to recognize the evolving cultural context of economic behavior and cognition.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Foundations of Economic Change: An Extended Schumpeterian Approach

Nächstes Kapitel Upward and Downward Complementarity: The Meso Core of Evolutionary Growth Theory

For a fine broad review of behavioral economics see Diamond and Vartianen (2007).

For a compact review of the field and how it connects to economic analysis see Nelson and Nelson (2002). For a more recent and extensive review written for psychologists see Glenberg et al. (2013).

Perhaps the best general reference is Simon (1957).

Giovanni Dosi has urged me to state clearly that the conception of bounded rationality I am endorsing here must not be interpreted as implying that there is something that could be interpreted as fully rational behavior that bounded rationality is not quite up to achieving. Under the perspective I develop here truly fully rational behavior is simply impossible, often even to define, much less achieve, except under tightly defined and controlled contexts that are quite unlike the contexts actually faced by economic actors.

The argument that a theory of economic behavior and cognition needs to recognize the cultural basis of human action and thought of course was a central premise of the American Institutional Economists who were an important part of the academic economic community from the beginnings of the twentieth century until after World War II. For a survey of their perspective, see Mazzoleni and Nelson (2013).

For a very interesting discussion see J. C. Spender’s Industry Recipes (1989).

For a history of what happened see the introduction by Hodgson and Stoelhorst (2014), to the special issue of the Journal of Institutional Economics concerned with the future of institutional and evolutionary economics.

These two different modes of action taking were built into most of the models developed in Nelson and Winter (1982).

There is good reason to believe that Dewey would agree with me on this.

For a fine review of the literature on organizational routines, see Becker (2004).

This is Herbert Simon’s concept of “satisficing”.

Donald (1991) provides a splendid discussion of these and related matters.

There is some evidence that certain other animals have this capability, but to a very limited degree.

Other species have the capability of spreading the effective behaviors learned by one individuals to others in the community, but not of building further and cumulatively from that.

See Mazzoleni and Nelson (2013), for a discussion of that tradition of economic research. The December 2014 special issue of the Journal of Institutional Economics reviews the state of both evolutionary and institutional economics and considers their connections. See in particular the opening essay by Hodgson and Stoelhorst.

Formal proofs of important aspects of this argument can be found in Chap. 7, “Firm and Industry Response to Changed Market Conditions” in Nelson and Winter (1982).

For a more elaborate discussion see Nelson (2012).

Becker M (2004) Organizational routines: a review of the literature. Ind Corp Chang 13(4):643–678CrossRef

Cyert R, March J (1963) A behavioral theory of the firm. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs

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Diamond P, Vartianen H (eds) (2007) Behavioral economics and its applications. Princeton University Press, Princeton

Donald M (1991) Origins of the modern mind. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Glenberg A, Witt J, Metcalfe J (2013) From the revolution to embodiment: 25 years of cognitive psychology. Perspect Psychol Sci 8:575–585CrossRef

Hodgson G, Stoelhorst J (2014) Introduction to the special issue on the future of institutional and evolutionary economics. J Inst Econ 10:513–540

Kahneman D (2011) Thinking fast and slow. Macmillan, New York

Mazzoleni R, Nelson R (2013) An interpretive history of challenges to neoclassical microeconomics and how they have fared. Ind Corp Chang 22:1409–1451CrossRef

Mitchell WC (1912) The backward art of spending money. Am Econ Rev 2:269–281

Nelson R (2012) Why Schumpeter has had so little influence on today’s main line economics and why this may be changing. J Evol Econ 22:901–916CrossRef

Nelson R (2013) Demand, supply, and their interaction on markets as seen from the perspective of evolutionary economic theory. J Evol Econ 23:17–38CrossRef

Nelson R, Consoli D (2010) An evolutionary theory of household behavior. J Evol Econ 20:665–687CrossRef

Nelson R, Nelson K (2002) On the nature and evolution of human know-how. Res Policy 31:719–733CrossRef

Nelson R, Winter S (1982) An evolutionary theory of economic change. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Schumpeter J (1934) The theory of economic development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

Simon H (1957) Models of man. Wiley, New York

Spender JC (1989) Industry recipes: the nature and sources of managerial judgment. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 373–397

Veblen T (1898) Why is economics not an evolutionary science? Q J Econ 12:373–397CrossRef

Winter S (2013) Habit, deliberation, and action: strengthening the microfoundations of routines and capabilities. Acad Manag Perspect 27:120–137CrossRef

Winter S (2014) The future of evolutionary economics: can we break out of the beachhead? J Inst Econ 10:613–644

Titel: Behavior and Cognition of Economic Actors in Evolutionary Economics
verfasst von: Richard R. Nelson
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Foundations of Economic Change
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62008-4

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-62009-1

Copyright-Jahr: 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62009-1_3

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