The Economic Complexity of Innovation as a Creative Response.

Evolutionary economics has finally recognized the limits of biological analogies and is now able to apply the tools of complexity analysis. A better appreciation of the Schumpeterian legacy can help building better foundations to this new phase of evolutionary economics. The paper uncovers the merits of the essay “The creative response in economic history” published by Joseph Alois Schumpeter in the Journal of Economic History in 1947 and forgotten since then. The correct appreciation of this Schumpeterian contribution is important not only to better understand the evolution of Schumpeter’s thinking but also to elaborate a more inclusive and robust framework able to integrate the contributions of the Classical School and the Marshallian traditions as well as the tools of historical economics so as to implement the new emerging evolutionary complexity.