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TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND ECONOMIC DYNAMICS FROM THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT TO CONTEMPORARY EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2016

Ai-Thu Dang
Ai-Thu Dang*
Affiliation:
University of Paris 1, Centre d’économie de la Sorbonne (CNRS), 106-112, Boulevard de l’Hôpital, 74647 Paris Cedex 13, France. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold: first, we show that some theoretical continuities exist between the approaches of Bernard Mandeville, Adam Ferguson, and Adam Smith to the division of labor and the contemporary analyses of technical change and economic dynamics, which consider innovation as a process of technological creation. We thus offer a further exploration of the origins of evolutionary ideas in the history of evolutionary economics. Second, despite the existence of these theoretical continuities, we highlight the differences between the Scottish Enlightenment authors and the modern evolutionary economists on the issue of temporality and the place of history in their reflections.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 38 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 211 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2016 

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