Using the theory of the adjacent possible (TAP), we describe a recombination process, agent epistemology, and the contours of rationality under creative evolution. In so doing, we rederive Hayek's results about local knowledge, reinforce the salience of heuristics over traditional rational...

In a pandemic, citizens and policy makers must rely on expert opinion. What are the institutional arrangements that allow for the best advice to come forward? Using the framework established by Koppl (2018) on expert failure, we analyze the COVID-19 pandemic to see where missteps in expertise...

The nature of economic opportunity has recently received significant attention in entrepreneurship, organization science and strategy. The notion of boundedly rational search on an (NK) opportunity landscape has been particularly relevant to these conversations and debates. We argue that the...

Drawing on current biology, we argue that the phase space of economic evolution is not stable. Thus, there are no entailing laws of economic dynamics. In this sense, economic dynamics are creative and the economy is not a causal system. Because economic dynamics are creative, the implicit frame...

Institutions and the incentives they create can be designed or redesigned to produce desired outcomes. But design does not work if social and economic dynamics are “creative.” If it is impossible to know in advance how an institution will change behavior and incentives — and what interests...

In response to Pelikan, Witt, Foster, and Colander, we reiterate our main contributions: (1) our more careful demonstration of why ‘mechanistic’ models have limited application, (2) our account of novelty as a system-level phenomenon, and (3) our identification of ‘novelty...

In this article we critically examine the use of Big Data in the legal system. Big Data is driving a trend towards behavioral optimization and “personalized law,” in which legal decisions and rules are optimized for best outcomes and where law is tailored to individual consumers based on...