TRANSFORMATION OF THE EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS THEORY

The evolutionary economics was separated into an independent direction of research only after the appearance of the works of R. Nelson and S. Winter. The theory they propose is based on similar processes in economics and biology. Thus, the evolutionary economic theory was built on the inconsistency of two processes based on Darwin's theory (variability and selection). When transferring this into the economic reality we create the following model: a competitive struggle is created between the firms as a result of which the most adapted ones "survive" in the process of industrial innovation. At the same time, the evolutionary ideas arose much earlier. In the XVIII century B. Mandeville, A. Smith, and later T. Malthus expressed their ideas that could be attributed to the evolutionary approach today in connection with the assertion of a natural-science worldview that undermined the idea of a divine creation, though with some reservations. The purpose of this article is to trace the change in the ideas of "evolutionary economics" in various technological orders.