Structural dynamics and evolutionary change

Both structural and evolutionary approaches to economic change respond to the need of moving beyond the questions traditionally addressed in equilibrium growth modelling. The evolutionary approaches highlight that interdependent components of the economic system may respond to their respective motions in a mutually reinforcing way thereby leading to the emergence of new structures. The structural approaches highlight the asymmetries between response patterns of different components of the economy and address the economic discontinuities arising from the mismatch of different types of motion or the compensatory policies needed to achieve certain objectives (such as full employment) under conditions of structural change. This paper argues that the two approaches stem from different intellectual traditions but may complement each other. The structural approach provides tools to the investigation of evolutionary processes in which bottlenecks and asymmetries affect the formation of new structures, while the evolutionary approach provides tools to the analysis of changes leading to the irreversible transformation of economic structures.