Theorie und Empirie aus evolutionsökonomischer Sicht / Theory and Empirical Facts in the Perspective of Evolutionary

According to Colander, modern economics is economics of the model. Models have to be testable, in order to get a “theory with measurement”. This procedure was recently criticized vehemently by Blaug maintaining that there is only little empirical progress in the economics of today. He makes the case for evolutionary economics because the latter is considering especially entrepreneurship and innovations, topics which are neglected by economists constructing and testing models. The reason for this is, as G.M. Hodgson tells us: “By its nature, novelty defies the boundary of formalism.” Evolutionary economics stressing competition and market processes focuses on innovations and institutions, but its method – because of the involved complex relations – is not confined to simple testable models. This raises the question how theory is confronted with empirical facts in evolutionary economics. Taking into consideration that evolutionary economics has a preference for “pattern predictions” in the sense of von Hayek the author pleads for a plurality of empirical methods. The important role of the search for “invariant factors” in this context is analyzed, too.