Evolutionary cognitive economics

Abstract This paper reviews the limitations of the neo-classical economics paradigm in dealing with information: the focus on individual rationality, a static view of the world, and an unduly parsimonious characterization of the world of cognition. It then sketches the contours of an alternative paradigm built on selective rationality, imperfect mental representations, cognitive structures as filters, and an adoption/adaptation dynamics, with selection mechanisms adopting certain representations, rationales and conventions, but rules and patterns also adapting to the evolving milieu. The new evolutionary cognitive paradigm is shown to be pregnant with new insights into the structure and functioning of modern economies but also likely to generate some reformulation in our policy prescriptions.

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