verspagen.nl - Paper in TFSC pre-published

A paper entitled 'The use of modeling tools for policy in evolutionary environments' was just published on the website of Technological Forecasting and Social Change. It is due to appear in 2009 in a special issue on Models in evolutionary economics and environmental policy: Towards an evolutionary environmental economics.

Abstract: This is a position paper on the possibilities of informing the (economic and environmental) policy debate by using quantitative evolutionary models. I argue that an evolutionary worldview implies that the existing quantitative modeling tools used for policy analysis are problematic. Then I summarize the main elements of an evolutionary way of analysis, and the way in which it can be incorporated into quantitative models. I conclude with an outline of a proposal for how to apply the ideas in the analysis of energy transitions.

Keywords: Evolutionary economics; Policy models

Full reference: B. Verspagen, 'The use of modeling tools for policy in evolutionary environments', Technological Forecasting and Social Change, forthcoming 2009, Link at publisher/DOI