Epistemic arguments play a significant role in Hayek’s defense of market liberalism. Hisclaim that market competition is a discovery procedure that serves the common good is acase in point. The hypothesis of the markets’ efficient use of existing knowledge issupplemented by the idea that...

While there is little doubt that innovations drive economic growth, their effects on well-being areless clear. One reason for this are ambivalent effects of innovations on well-being that result frompecuniary and technological externalities of innovations, argued to be inevitable. Another...

Strong growth in disposable income has driven, and is still driving, consumption to unprecedented,but not sustainable levels. To explain the dynamic interplay of needs, need satisfaction, andinnovation underlying that growth a behavioral theory of consumption is suggested and discussedwith...

There is currently much hope about environmental innovation and green technologies, notablyas a response to the threat of climate change. This paper offers a critical perspective on the roleof technological innovation to solving environmental problems, based on considering empiricaleconomic...

In Germany, solar thermal systems (STS) have only diused to a minor extentyet. This paper analyzes, which demand side factors are decisive for thefurther proliferation of this environmentally benign technology. Making use ofa consumer survey in North-West Germany in 2007, we examine the...

Did breakthroughs in core processes during the Industrial Revolution tend to generate furtherinnovations in downstream technologies? Here a theoretical model examines the effect of apolitical shock on a non-innovating society in which there is high potential willingness tocooperate. The result...

This paper is an empirical test of the hypothesis that the appropriateness of differentbusiness strategies is conditional on the firm’s distance to the industry frontier. We usedata on four 2-digit high-tech manufacturing industries in the US over the period 1972-1999, and apply...

In this paper we present an overview of methods and components of formal economic modelsemploying evolutionary approaches. This compromises two levels: (1) techniques ofevolutionary modelling, including multi-agent modelling, evolutionary algorithms andevolutionary game theory; (2) building...

The issue of technological unemployment receives perennial popular attention. Althoughthere are previous empirical investigations that have focused on the relationship between innovationand employment, the originality of our approach lies in our choice of method. We focus onfour 2-digit...

Based on new data, this paper studies invention disclosure, licensing, and firm formationactivities of Max Planck Institute directors over the time period 1985-2004, and analyzestheir effects on scientists’ publication and citation records. The results are consistent withprior findings that...