The challenge of Evo-Devo: Implications for evolutionary economists

What is it about?

Usually, evolutionary economists equate evolutionary theory with modern Darwinism. However, the rise of evolutionary developmental biology (Evo-Devo) puts into question the monopoly of Darwinism in evolutionary biology. The major divergences between the two paradigms in evolutionary biology are drawn in the analysis of three trade-offs: population vs. typological thinking, creative role of natural selection vs. internal (inherent) change, and microevolution vs. macroevolution. It is argued here that the Evo- Devo breakthrough helps us to understand better the limits to Darwinism in the social realm and outline the contours of an alternative paradigm in evolutionary economics that favors structural macroevolution and what Schumpeter called “change from within”. Keywords Evolutionary economics . Evo-devo . Darwinism. Macroevolution . Structural explanations JEL classification B52 .B41 . A12 . E11

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