Neoclassical versus evolutionary economics in developing countries: convergence of policy implications

• Published in: Journal of evolutionary economics Vol. 27; no. 3; pp. 555 - 583
• Main Authors: Ghazinoory, Sepehr, Narimani, Meysam, Tatina, Shiva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.07.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Convergence; Coordination; Developing countries; Economic Growth; Economic models; Economic policy; Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods; Economics; Economics and Finance; Entrepreneurship; Evolutionary economics; Innovation policy; Innovations; Institutional/Evolutionary Economics; LDCs; Microeconomics; Paradigms; Policy making; Questionnaires; R & D/Technology Policy; Regular Article; Science and technology; Technological change; Technology; Policy rationale; Neoclassical economics; Evolutionary economics; Technology policy; Fuzzy method
• ISSN: 0936-9937; 1432-1386
• DOI: 10.1007/s00191-017-0490-z

This paper aims to determine whether the dichotomy between the science, technology, and innovation policy based on neoclassical and evolutionary schools of economics is applicable to developing countries. Regarding the fundamental differences in foundations of these two economic paradigms, policymakers have been forced to select and to follow one of the two seemingly competing views. However, in developing countries, due to various market and government coordination failures, complying with one of the schools has not been successful in practice. From the past, there has been some controversy between neoclassical and evolutionary schools on the subject of science, technology and innovation policy. Using a survey questionnaire and statistical analyses of the results, this paper shows that, due to the institutional setting and structural conditions in developing countries, despite the fundamentally different foundations of the competing schools of thought, the policy implications of the schools have converged. Drawing on Theme Analysis Method, the rationales are first conceptualized and then the fuzzy method is applied to reveal the respondents’ tendency to the extracted rationales and implications of the two competing schools. In conclusion, the statistical results validate the proposed hypothesis.