Neo-classical Economics and Evolutionary Theory: Strange Bedfellows?

Extract

On the surface and to a first approximation, economic theory and evolutionary theory share salient features: a commitment to optimality and maximizing, a consequent similarity in mathematical formalism, an appeal to equilibrium as the preferred explanatory strategy. Moreover, both have at various times been stigmatized as empirically empty. However, the theory of natural selection has been widely accepted as the scientific cornerstone of modern biology, while microeconomics has remained open to repeated challenges as an explanation of human action and its aggregate consequences.

Because of their similarity, evolutionary theory looks like part of a powerful defense of the status quo in economic theory. I think that Darwinian theory is a remarkably inappropriate model, metaphor, inspiration, or theoretical framework for economic theory.