Evolutionary Economics

Economic analysis is no Iess evolving than the economy itself. In a previous era. economics was considered 10 be the "queen" of the social sciences that possessed a relatively autonomous and somewhat elitist character. Now a brief review of the current literature in various subfields of economics reveals emerging synergies and increasingly blurred demarcation lines between the economic literature and neighboring disciplines. Some notable examples include the increasing prevalence of psychological approaches to account for seemingly irrational behavior in behavioral economics; the rise of neuro-­economics that builds a bridge between neuroscience and traditional models of decision making; growing evidence that social networks and peer behavior can play a key role in individual preferences. and the growing links between the international trade literature and economic geography. Words once foreign to economists. such as '"dopamine", "control group", and "network effects", have become familiar terms in the debate. Taken together, this trend seems to be irreversible and points to a future where cutting-edge research in economics Is more integrated with scientific development in neighboring fields.