Why do societies benefit differently from knowledge? How exactly does social interaction interfere with knowledge acquisition and diffusion? This original Handbook brings together a wide range of differing approaches to shed light on these questions and others relating to the role and relevance of knowledge in economic analysis. By illuminating the philosophical roots of the various notions of knowledge employed by economists, this Handbook helps to disentangle conceptual and typological issues surrounding the debate on knowledge amongst economists. Wide-ranging in scope, it explores fundamental aspects of the relationship between knowledge and economics - such as the nature of knowledge, knowledge acquisition and knowledge diffusion. This important compendium embraces various fields and traditions of economic analysis and discusses the role of knowledge in 21 papers from outstanding international scholars. Advanced scholars and PhD students interested in cross-fertilization between different fields of economic analysis will find this Handbook of considerable importance.
Contents: Introduction Richard Arena, Agnes Festre and Nathalie Lazaric PART I: KNOWLEDGE AND ECONOMICS: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 2. What Vilfredo Pareto Brought to the Economics of Knowledge? Ludovic Ragni 3. Knowledge in Marshall Brian J. Loasby 4. Carl Menger and Friedrich von Wieser on the Role of Knowledge and Beliefs in the Emergence and Evolution of Institutions Agnes Festre 5. The Pragmatist's View of Knowledge and Beliefs in Institutional Economics: The Significance of Habits of Thought, Transactions and Institutions in the Conception of Economic Behaviour Veronique Dutraive 6. Imagination and Perception as Gateways to Knowledge: The Unexplored Affinity between Boulding and Hayek Roberta Patalano 7. The knowledge-Rationality Connection in Herbert Simon Salvatore Rizzello and Anna Spada PART II: ECONOMICS, KNOWLEDGE AND UNCERTAINTY 8. A Note on Information, Knowledge and Economic Theory Giovanni Dosi 9. The Cognitive Explanation of Economic Behaviour: From Simon to Kahneman Massimo Egidi 10. Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Generation and Utilization of Knowledge Pier-Paolo Saviotti 11. Models of Adaptative Learning in Game Theory Jacques Durieu and Philippe Solal 12. The Fragility of Experiential Knowledge Dominique Foray 13. One Knowledge Base or Many Knowledge Pools? Bengt-Ake Lundvall 14. Knowledge in Finance: Objective Value versus Convention Andre Orlean PART III: ECONOMICS, KNOWLEDGE AND ORGANIZATION 15. Embodied Cognition, Organization and Innovation Bart Nooteboom 16. Types of Knowledge - and their Economic Characteristics Ulrich Witt, Tom Brokel and Thomas Brenner 17. Tacit Knowledge Paul Nightingale 18. The Firm as a 'Platform of Communities': A Contribution to the Knowledge-based Approach of the Firm Ash Amin and Patrick Cohendet 19. Architecture and Design of Knowledge in Organizations Mie Augier and Thorbjorn Knudsen 20. Distributed Knowledge and its Coordination Markus C. Becker 21. Evolution of Individual and Organizational Knowledge: Exploring Some Motivational Triggers Enabling Change Nathalie Lazaric Index
