THE ROLE OF IMITATIVE MECHANISMS WITHIN THE ECONOMIC EVOLUTION
THE ROLE OF IMITATIVE MECHANISMS WITHIN THE ECONOMIC EVOLUTION

Summary/Abstract: In the light of Schumpeter’s pioneering vision of economic evolution the innovationsand innovative entrepreneurs play a fundamental role in the economic development.However, imitations and producers-imitators are essential in diffusing andadapting innovations into the economic exchange processes. In this context the aim ofthe paper is to model and analyse some properties of imitative mechanisms appearingwithin the economic evolution.Innovative and imitative mechanisms defined in Hurwicz’s conceptual apparatusare analysed in the economy determined by the use of topological tools usually appliedin the general equilibrium theory. As a result it is shown that, in the economy understudy, imitative mechanisms are the reasons for and the consequences of innovativemechanisms as well as that the innovative and imitative processes can coexist in theframework of the same innovative mechanism. Moreover it is proven that under someassumptions equilibrium in the economic system analysed can be obtained as a consequenceof either of an innovative or an imitative mechanism.

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