Riccardo Leoncini - Paradigm Shifts in Economics

FRIAS Lunch Lecture from 17 December 2015 with Prof. Dr. Riccardo Leoncini from the University of Bologna

Adopting the notion of paradigm, I will try to identify and characterise a period in the last 50 years that could be characterised as a paradigm shift. In the talk, I will start from the contribution of the Austrian economist J.A. Schumpeter, who at the beginning of the 20th century produced a thorough and radical revision of the mainstream, which went practically unnoticed at the time. During the 1970s, his contribution was "rediscovered" and became the bulk of a new theoretical and methodological proposal. I will then give an account of the work of economists such as Richard Nelson, Sidney Winter, Chris Freeman and Keith Pavitt, who, in the wake of the Schumpeterian legacy, built and established the evolutionary approach to economics. The talk will discuss the main characteristics of their contribution with respect to the mainstream, and will close with a discussion of the meaning and applicability of the term scientific revolution.

More information on the FRIAS Lunch Lectures 2015/16: https://www.frias.uni-freiburg.de/de/mediathek/lunch-lectures/videomitschnitte-der-lunch-lectures