Is novelty always a good thing? Towards an evolutionary welfare economics

Journal of Evolutionary Economics

Volumn 22, Issue 3, 2012, Pages 585-619

  Schubert, Christian ^a  

^a Department of Archaeology   (Germany)

Author keywords

Endogenous change; Justice; Novelty; Preference formation; Welfare

Indexed keywords

EID: 84864367162     PISSN: 09369937     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00191-011-0257-x     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. Aldrich HE, Hodgson GM, Hull DL, Knudsen T, Mokyr J, Vanberg VJ (2008) In defence of generalized Darwinism. J Evol Econ 18: 577-596.
2. Anand P, Gray A (2009) Obesity as market failure: could a 'deliberative economy' overcome the problem of paternalism? Kyklos 62: 182-190.
3. Andersen ES (2004) Population thinking and evolutionary economic analysis: exploring Marshall's fable of the trees. Mimeo.
4. Ariely D, Loewenstein G, Prelec D (2006) Tom Sawyer and the construction of value. J Econ Behav Organ 60: 1-10.
5. Atkinson AB (2009) Economics as a moral science. Economica 76: 791-804.
6. Audretsch DB, Grillo I, Thurik AR (2007) Explaining entrepreneurship and the role of policy: a framework. In: Handbook of research in entrepreneurship policy. Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 1-17.
7. Baumol W (1990) Entrepreneurship: productive, unproductive, and destructive. J Polit Econ 98: 893-921.
8. Beaulier S, Caplan B (2007) Behavioral economics and perverse effects of the welfare state. Kyklos 60: 485-507.
9. Bianchi M (2002) Novelty, preferences, and fashion: when goods are unsettling. J Econ Behav Organ 47: 1-18.
10. Binder M (2010) Elements of an evolutionary theory of welfare. Routledge, London.
11. Blanchflower DG (2009) International evidence on well-being. In: Kruger AB (ed) Measuring the subjective well-being of nations: national accounts of time use and well-being. Chicago University Press, Chicago, pp 155-226.
12. Blanchflower DG, Oswald AJ (2005) Some policy implications of behavioral economics-Happiness and the human development index: the paradox of Australia. Aust Econ Rev 38: 307-318.
13. Boeri T, Börsch-Supan A, Tabellini G (2001) Would you like to shrink the welfare state? A survey of European citizens. Econ Pol 16: 9-50.
14. Boulding KE (1981) Evolutionary economics. Sage, Beverly Hills.
15. Bovens L (2008) The ethics of Nudge. In: Grüne-Yanoff T, Hansson SO (eds) Preference change: approaches from philosophy, economics and psychology. Springer, Berlin, pp 207-220.
16. Broome J (1996) Choice and value in economics. In: Hamlin AP (ed) Ethics and economics, vol. I. Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 65-85.
17. Broome J (2008) Why economics needs ethical theory. In: Basu K, Kanbur R (eds) Arguments for a better world: essays in honor of Amartya Sen. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 7-15.
18. Bruni L, Sugden R (2007) The road not taken: how psychology was removed from economics, and how it might be brought back. Econ J 117: 146-173.
19. Buchanan JM (1977) Freedom in constitutional contract. Texas A & M University Press, College Station.
20. Buchanan JM (2005) Afraid to be free: dependency as desideratum. Public Choice 124: 19-31.
21. Camerer C, Issacharoff S, Loewenstein G, O'Donoghue T, Rabin M (2003) Regulation for conservatives: behavioral economics and the case for 'asymmetric paternalism'. Univ PA Law Rev 151: 1211-1254.
22. Cantner U, Pyka A (2001) Classifying technology policy from an evolutionary perspective. Res Policy 30: 759-775.
23. Clark DA (2006) The capability approach: its development, critiques and recent advances. In: Clark DA (ed) The Elgar Companion to development studies. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 32-45.
24. Clark AE (2007) Born to be mild? Cohort effects don't (fully) explain why well-being is U-shaped in age. IZA Discussion Paper No. 3170, IZA, Bonn, Germany.
25. Cordes C (2008) A potential limit on competition. J Bioecon 10: 127-144.
26. Cordes C, Schubert C (2010) Role models that make you unhappy: light paternalism, social learning and welfare. Papers on Economics & Evolution #1022. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.
27. Di Tella R, McCulloch R, Oswald A (2003) The macroeconomics of happiness. Rev Econ Stat 85: 809-827.
28. Dopfer K (1976) Introduction: towards a new paradigm. In: Dopfer K (ed) Economics in the future. Macmillan, London, pp 3-35.
29. Dosi G, Marengo L, Pasquali C (2006) How much should society fuel the greed of innovators? On the relations between appropriability, opportunities and rates of innovation. Res Policy 35: 1110-1121.
30. Earl PE, Potts J (2004) The market for preferences. Camb J Econ 28: 619-633.
31. Elster J (1982) Sour grapes-utilitarianism and the genesis of wants. In: Sen AK, Williams B (eds) Utilitarianism and beyond. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 219-238.
32. Foss NJ (2006) Evolutionary Economics and Economic Policy. Available online at: http://organizationsandmarkets. com/2006/08/02/evolutionary-economics-and-economic-policy/.
33. Frank RH (2008) Should public policy respond to positional externalities? J Public Econ 92: 1777-1786.
34. Frey BS, Stutzer A (2002) What can economists learn from happiness research? J Econ Lit 60: 402-435.
35. Frey BS, Sutzer A (2007) What happiness research can tell us about self-control problems and utility mispredictions. In: Frey BS, Stutzer A (eds) Economics and psychology: a promising new cross-disciplinary field. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 169-195.
36. Frey BS, Benz M, Stutzer A (2004) Introducing procedural utility: not only what, but also how matters. J Inst Theor Econ 160: 377-401.
37. Georgescu-Roegen N (1954) Choice, expectations, and measurability. Q J Econ 68: 503-534.
38. Gowdy JM (2004) The revolution in welfare economics and its implications for environmental valuation and policy. Land Econ 80: 239-257.
39. Gray J (1999) Hayek on liberty. Routledge, London.
40. Hanusch A, Pyka A (2007) Principles of Neo-Schumpeterian economics. Camb J Econ 31: 275-289.
41. Harsanyi J (1982) Morality and the theory of rational behavior. In: Sen AK, Williams B (eds) Utilitarianism and beyond. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 39-62.
42. Hayek FA (1948) Individualism and economic order. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
43. Hayek FA (1976) Law, legislation and liberty, vol. II. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
44. Hayek FA (1978) The confusion of language in political thought. In: New studies in philosophy, politics, economics and the history of ideas. Routledge, London, pp 71-97.
45. Hayek FA (1988) The fatal conceit. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
46. Hayek FA (2009) The common sense of progress. In: The constitution of liberty. Routledge, London, pp 36-48.
47. Henrekson M (2005) Entrepreneurship: a weak link in the welfare state? Ind Corp Change 14: 437-467.
48. Herrnstein RJ (1990) Behavior, reinforcement and utility. Psychological Science 1: 217-224.
49. Hodgson GM (1993) Economics and evolution: bringing life back into economics. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
50. Hodgson GM (1999) Economics and Utopia: why the learning economy is not the end of history. Routledge, London.
51. Ironmonger DS (1972) New commodities and consumer behavior. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
52. Kahneman D, Wakker PP, Sarin R (1997) Back to Bentham? Explorations of experienced utility. Q J Econ 112: 375-405.
53. Kahneman D, Sugden R (2005) Experienced utility as a standard of policy evaluation. Environ Resource Econ 32: 161-181.
54. Kerstenetzky CL (2007) Hayek and Popper on ignorance and intervention. J Inst Econ 3: 33-53.
55. Keynes JN (1917) The scope and method of political economy. Macmillan, London.
56. Köszegi B, Rabin M (2008) Choices, situations, and happiness. J Public Econ 92: 1821-1832.
57. Lachmann L (2007) Capital and its structure. Sheed Andres and McMeel, Kansas City.
58. Lessig L (1995) The regulation of social meaning. Univ Chic Law Rev 62: 943-1045.
59. Little IMD (1957) A critique of welfare economics. Oxford University Press, London.
60. Metcalfe JS (2001) Institutions and progress. Ind Corp Change 10: 561-586.
61. Metcalfe JS (2005) Systems failure and the case for innovation policy. In: Llerena P, Matt M (eds) Innovation policy in a knowledge-based economy. Springer, Berlin, pp 47-74.
62. Mokyr J (2000) Innovation and its enemies: the economic and political roots of technological inertia. In: Olson M, Kähkönen S (eds) A not-so-dismal science. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 61-91.
63. Myrdal G (1933) Das Zweck-Mittel Denken in der Nationalökonomie. Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie 4: 305-329.
64. Nelson RR (1977) The Moon and the Ghetto. Norton, New York.
65. Nelson RR (1981) Assessing private enterprise: an exegesis of tangled doctrine. Bell J Econ 12: 93-111.
66. Nelson RR (1990) Capitalism as an engine of growth. Res Policy 19: 193-214.
67. Nelson RR (1995) Recent evolutionary theorizing about economic change. J Econ Lit 33: 48-90.
68. Nelson RR, Winter SG (1982) An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Belknap Press, Cambridge.
69. Ng Y-K (2003) From preference to happiness: towards a more complete welfare economics. Soc Choice Welf 20: 307-350.
70. North DC (1990) Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
71. Nozick R (1974) Anarchy, state and utopia. Basic Books, New York.
72. Ostrom E (2005) Understanding institutional diversity. Princeton University Press.
73. Pelikan P (2002) Why economic policies need comprehensive evolutionary analysis. In: Pelikan P, Wegner G (eds) Evolutionary thinking on economic policy. Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 15-45.
74. Potts J (2001) Knowledge and markets. J Evol Econ 11: 413-431.
75. Potts J (2004) Liberty bubbles. Policy 20: 15-21.
76. Qizilbash M (2008) The adaptation problem, evolution and normative economics. Papers on Economics & Evolution #0708. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.
77. Rabin M (2002) A perspective on psychology and economics. Eur Econ Rev 46: 657-685.
78. Rawls J (1971) A Theory of Justice. Belknap Press, Cambridge.
79. Robbins L (1935) An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. Macmillan, London.
80. Samuelson PA (1938) A note on the pure theory of consumer's behaviour. Economica 5: 61-71.
81. Sartorius C (2003) An Evolutionary Approach to Social Welfare. Routledge, London.
82. Scanlon TM (1991) The moral basis of interpersonal comparisons. In: Elster J, Roemer JE (eds) Interpersonal comparisons of well-being. Cambridge University Press, MA, pp 17-44.
83. Schubert C (2009) Welfare Creation and Destruction in a Schumpeterian World. Papers on Economics & Evolution #0913. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.
84. Schumpeter JA (1912) Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin.
85. Schumpeter JA (1942) Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Allen & Unwin, London.
86. Schumpeter JA (1954) History of Economic Analysis. Allen & Unwin, London.
87. Scitovsky T (1941) A note on welfare propositions in economics. Rev Econ Stud 9: 77-88.
88. Sen AK (1977a) Rational fools: a critique of the behavioral foundations of economic theory. Philos Public Aff 6: 317-344.
89. Sen AK (1977b) On weights and measures: informational constraints in social welfare analysis. Econometrica 45: 1539-1572.
90. Sen AK (1979) Equality of What? Tanner Lecture on Human Values. Available online at: http://www. tannerlectures. utah. edu/lectures/documents/sen80. pdf.
91. Sen AK (1980) Equality of what. In: McMurrin SM (ed) The tanner lectures on human values. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp 197-220.
92. Sen AK (1985) Commodities and Capabilities. Basic Books, New York.
93. Sen AK (1988) On Ethics and Economics. Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
94. Sen AK (1993) On the Darwinian view of progress. Popul Dev Rev 19: 123-137.
95. Sen AK (1996) On the foundations of welfare economics: utility, capability, and practical reason. In: Farina F, Hahn F, Vanucci S (eds) Ethics, rationality, and economic behavior. Clarendon, Oxford, pp 50-65.
96. Sen AK (1999) Development as Freedom. Knopf, New York.
97. Sen AK (2009) The Idea of Justice. Allen Lane, London.
98. Sobel D (1994) Full-information accounts of well-being. Ethics 104: 784-810.
99. Stam E (2008) Entrepreneurship and innovation policy. Jena Economic Research Papers #2008-006.
100. Sugden R (1993) Normative judgments and spontaneous order: the contractarian element in Hayek's thought. Const Polit Econ 4: 393-424.
101. Sugden R (2004) The opportunity criterion: consumer sovereignty without the assumption of coherent preferences. Am Econ Rev 94: 1014-1033.
102. Sugden R (2007) The value of opportunities over time when preferences are unstable. Soc Choice Welf 29: 665-682.
103. Sugden R (2008) Why incoherent preferences do not justify paternalism. Const Polit Econ 19: 226-248.
104. Sugden R (2009) On nudging: a review of nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness. Int J Econ Bus 16: 365-373.
105. Sunstein CR, Thaler RH (2003) Libertarian paternalism. Am Econ Rev, Papers & Proceedings 93: 175-179.
106. Thaler RH, Sunstein CR (2008) Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Princeton University Press, New Haven.
107. van den Bergh JCJM, Kallis G (2009) Evolutionary policy. Papers on economics & evolution #0902. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.
108. van Praag M, Versloot PH (2007) What is the value of entrepreneurship? A review of recent research. Small Bus Econ 29: 351-382.
109. Vanberg VJ (1994a) Cultural evolution, collective learning, and constitutional design. In: Reisman D (ed) Economic thought and political theory. Kluwer, Boston, pp 171-204.
110. Vanberg VJ (1994b) Hayek's legacy and the future of liberal thought: rational liberalism vs. evolutionary agnosticism. J des Econ et des Etud Hum 5: 451-481.
111. Vanberg VJ (2006) Human intentionality and design in cultural evolution. In: Schubert C, von Wangenheim G (eds) Evolution and design of institutions. Routledge, London, pp 197-212.
112. Vis B, van Kersbergen K (2007) Why and how do political actors pursue risky reforms? J Theor Polit 19: 153-172.
113. Wegner G (1997) Economic policy from an evolutionary perspective-a new approach. J Inst Theor Econ 153: 485-509.
114. Wegner G (2005) Reconciling evolutionary economics with liberalism. In: Dopfer K (ed) Economics, evolution and the state. Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 58-77.
115. von Weizsäcker CC (1971) Notes on endogenous change of tastes. J Econ Theory 3: 345-372.
116. von Weizsäcker CC (2010) Cost-Benefit Analysis with Adaptive Preferences. Mimeo, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, Germany.
117. Whitman DG (1998) Hayek contra pangloss on evolutionary systems. Const Polit Econ 9: 45-66.
118. Witt U (1987) Individualistische Grundlagen der evolutorischen Ökonomik. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen.
119. Witt U (1996) Innovations, externalities and the problem of economic progress. Public Choice 89: 113-130.
120. Witt U (2000) Genes, culture, and utility. Papers on Economics & Evolution #0009. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.
121. Witt U (2001) Learning to consume-a theory of wants and the growth of demand. J Evol Econ 11: 23-36.
122. Witt U (2003) Economic policy making in evolutionary perspective. J Evol Econ 13: 77-94.
123. Witt U (2004) Beharrung und Wandel - ist wirtschaftliche Evolution theoriefähig? Erwägen - Wissen - Ethik 15: 33-45.
124. Witt U (2008) What is specific about evolutionary economics? J Evol Econ 18: 547-575.
125. Witt U, Schubert C (2010) Extending the informational basis of welfare economics-the case of preference dynamics. Papers on Economics & Evolution #1005. Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena.