From Evolutionary Biology to Economics and Back: Parallels and Crossings between Economics and Evolution

The book explores the major key concepts common to economics and evolutionary biology, proposing analyses of twenty-five concepts from the viewpoint of economics and evolutionary biology, followed by a synthesis emphasizing discrepancies and commonalities. It also explores the nature of the analogy connecting evolution and economics and summarizes the major teachings of the analyses. It is intended for researchers, grad students, and master students in evolutionary and economic philosophy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 186 pages
Publication date: 14 January 2024
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the major key concepts common to economics and evolutionary biology. Written by a group of philosophers of science, biologists, and economists, it proposes analyses of the meaning of twenty-five concepts from the viewpoint of economics and evolutionary biology, each followed by a short synthesis emphasizing major discrepancies and commonalities. This analysis is surrounded by chapters exploring the nature of the analogy that connects evolution and economics, and chapters that summarize the major teachings of the analyses of the keywords. Most scholars in biology and economics know that their science has something in common with the other one, for instance, the notions of competition and resources. Textbooks regularly acknowledge that the two fields share some history – Darwin borrowing from Malthus the insistence on scarcity of resources, and then behavioral ecologists adapting and transforming game theory into evolutionary game theory in the 1980s, while Friedman famously alluded to a Darwinian process yielding the extant firms. However, the real extent of the similarities, the reasons why they are so close, and the limits and even the nature of the analogy connecting economics and biological evolution remain inexplicit. This book proposes basis analyses that can sustain such explication. It is intended for researchers, grad students, and master students in evolutionary and in economics, as well as in philosophy of science.

Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031087929
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022