Combining different new approaches to human behavior in neuroeconomics, the cognitive sciences and institutional economics, this paper sketches the fundamentals of a naturalistic theory of economic order. In this endeavour, the argument follows the track laid down by Hayek's comprehensive...

This paper reconsiders the explanation of economic policy from an evolutionary economics perspective. It contrasts the neoclassical equilibrium notions of market and government failure with the dominant evolutionary neo-Schumpeterian and Austrian-Hayekian perceptions. Based on this comparison,...

Macroeconomics must take radical uncertainty into account, if it aims at contributing to the solution of serious real-world problems such as climate change. Allowing for radical uncertainty must happen at two levels: the level of modeling and the level of the scientific discipline. I argue that...

How do ideas evolve? Can one speak of scientific progress when there is more than one pathway of intellectual evolution in which different ideas emerge and flow in different directions? Is the history of economic analysis a compilation of a number of intellectual pathways? This essay argues that...

Ordoliberalism differs from other liberal theories in not supporting the simplistic idea that the ‘government is the problem'. The aim of this chapter is therefore to explain the core features of ordoliberalism and distinguish it from other varieties of liberalism. We also show that...

Although most economists model individual behavior using comparative statics, that approach ignores several important aspects of human action. How do we account for people having opposite responses to the same price change? How do changes in the market or other institutions affect what people...

Macroeconomics must take radical uncertainty into account, if it aims at contributing to the solution of serious real-world problems such as climate change. Allowing for radical uncertainty must happen at two levels: the level of modeling and the level of the scientific discipline. I argue that...

The paper questions the idea that a biology-based perspective, and more specifically Darwinian population thinking, constitutes a real alternative for the study of the evolution of social systems. This is done through a critical appraisal of the work of Thorstein Veblen. Even though Veblen's...

Launched on institutional channel by George Tintner and Armen Alchian, the principle according to which the competitive environment is the one which operates the selection forcing individuals to behave rationally was and remained a subject of methodological disputes. Once in the market, the...

Recent debates in evolutionary economics over Universal Darwinism suffer from a biased emphasis on Neo-Darwinism. This paper argues in favour of Holistic Darwinism as a reference for methodological transfers. I survey major biological advances in evolutionary theory which challenge the...