Modern economies never come to rest. From institutions to activities of production, trade, and consumption, everything is locked in processes of perpetual transformation - and so are our daily lives. Why and how do such transformations occur? What can economic theory tell us about these changes and where they might lead? Ulrich Witt's book discusses why evolutionary concepts are necessary to answer such questions. While economic evolution is in many respects unique, it nonetheless needs to be seen within the broader context of natural evolution. By exploring this complex relationship Rethinking Economic Evolution demonstrated the significance of an evolutionary economic theory.

The volume focuses on the demand side phenomena of the soaring economic growth of the past few centuries. Growth theory has basically ignored the massive changes that occur here: the huge increase in the variety of products and services and the growing specialization in consumption behavior. The papers in the present volume argue, in contrast, that precisely these changes are crucial for understanding why ever more goods and services can be sold and, thus, economic growth can continue. The papers explore the historical and empirical developments in consumption and offer first theoretical orientations on this important, though neglected, topic.

Change manifests itself in all facets of the economy. This important collection of previously published essays illustrates how the evolutionary approach can reveal not only where change comes from, and how it happens, but also where it will lead. The Evolving Economy covers a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the biological foundations of economic behavior to the co-evolution of firms, markets, and institutions. Ulrich Witt's individualistic approach synthesizes elements familiar from the writings of Veblen and Schumpeter on economic evolution. A conceptual debate on what the notion of evolution means in the economic context is as much emphasized as is the discussion of concrete hypotheses explaining why and how evolutionary economic change comes about. Offering an outline of a paradigm focusing on endogenous economic change, this book will be of great interest to economists and economic historians. Sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists will also find this work invaluable as it presents an encompassing assessment of the role of Darwinian thought for understanding human behavior and societal evolutio

Change manifests itself in all facets of the economy. This important collection of previously published essays illustrates how the evolutionary approach can reveal not only where change comes from, and how it happens, but also where it will lead. The Evolving Economy covers a broad spectrum of issues ranging from the biological foundations of economic behavior to the co-evolution of firms, markets, and institutions. Ulrich Witt's individualistic approach synthesizes elements familiar from the writings of Veblen and Schumpeter on economic evolution. A conceptual debate on what the notion of evolution means in the economic context is as much emphasized as is the discussion of concrete hypotheses explaining why and how evolutionary economic change comes about. Offering an outline of a paradigm focusing on endogenous economic change, this book will be of great interest to economists and economic historians. Sociologists, philosophers and anthropologists will also find this work invaluable as it presents an encompassing assessment of the role of Darwinian thought for understanding human behavior and societal evolutio

Evolutionary economics is a vital, expanding field of research focusing on the incessant transformation of the economy and its driving forces. Exploring the most recent research trends in the field, this volume presents a high quality set of papers indispensable to scholars and researchers interested in the evolutionary approach. Highlighting a variety of pressing economic problems, explaining causes and arriving at innovative remedies, the broad coverage considers developments in: innovations, knowledge transfer, industrial dynamics, structural change, international competitiveness, evolutionary game theory, new applications of evolutionary thought in finance, economic geography and ecological economics.

Although the economy has always been changing, ever more innovations now seem to accelerate the transformation process. Are there any laws governing the incessant global change? Does it accord with our intentions and desires and make us happier? Do our institutions and our democracies cope with the challenges? How does economic theory explain what is going on? In this volume, experts in the field discuss the advances that evolutionary economics has made in exploring questions like these. The broad range of topics include a review of the development of the field: its conceptual and methodological characteristics are outlined; problems posed by macroeconomic evolution and the institutional challenges are highlighted; and, last but not least, the implications of the evolution of the economy for wellbeing and sustainability are addressed. Taken together, the contributions demonstrate the potential of an evolutionary paradigm for making sense of economic change and for assessing its consequences.

Evolutionary economics is the most challenging unorthodox approach to economic theory that has been developed in the last decades. The present volume offers a survey as well as a carefully selected sample of important new insights from a broad range of topics in economics: - the dynamics of institutional change - aggregate employment effects of diffusing innovations - institutional regimes of long run growth - indeterminaciesresulting expectation formation in the economy - the synergetic approach and its application to market morphology. The volume documentsa variety of modeling tools in evolutionary economics and offers a series ofstimulating hypotheses and research results. Its reading is a `must' for all scholars with an interest in economic change.

The collection of papers presented in this special issue arose out of two events. The first was the symposium "Escaping Satiation - Increasing Product Variety, Preference Change and the Demand Side of Economic Growth" which was held at the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany, in December 1997. The Fritz Thyssen Foundation provided financial support for this seminal symposium which is gratefully acknowledged. Wilhelm Ruprecht was of great help in preparing the symposium and I would like to express my gratitude to hirn on this occasion. Many stimulating exchanges with hirn over the past few years while he was a research associate at the Institute working on long term changes in consumption convinced me of the relevance and importance of this problem for understanding modem economic growth. I also owe thanks to many people who encouraged me to go ahead with the symposium, among them Stanley Metcalfe, Carl Christian von Weizsacker, and also Ehud Zuscovitch, who died so unexpectedly last year."

Diese Publikation bietet einen Uberblick uber die in jungster Zeit erbrachten Forschungen und Innovationen an der Fachhochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg. Sie zeigt die Breite der Forschung, aber auch, in welchen Profilbereichen sie Forschungsspitzen hervorgebracht hat.

Die Forschungsthemen spiegeln die Fachbereiche wider: Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Informatik sowie Elektrotechnik, Maschinenbau und Technikjournalismus am Campus Sankt Augustin; am Campus Rheinbach die Fachbereiche Wirtschaft und Angewandte Naturwissenschaften, am Campus Hennef der Fachbereich Sozialversicherung sowie das zentrale Institut fur Existenzgrundung und Mittelstandsforderung in Sankt Augustin.

Mit dem vorliegenden Band verabschiedet die Fachhochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg sich von ihrem langjahrigen Grundungsrektor Prof. Dr. Wulf Fischer. Dank seiner nachhaltigen Arbeit hat sich diese Hochschule weit uber die Region hinaus einen Namen gemacht. Neben der Lehre kommt der Forschung inzwischen ein grosser Stellenwert zu.

Dieses Lehrbuch behandelt zunachst zentrale Themen der klassischen Theoretischen Informatik und fuhrt darauf aufbauend in die Grundlagen der Algorithmischen Informationstheorie ein. Behandelt werden insbesondere die Fragestellungen: - Was sind Algorithmen? Was koennen sie und wo liegen ihre Grenzen? - Welche Aussagen sind uber die Laufzeit moeglich? Welches sind die wichtigsten Komplexitatsklassen? Was bedeuten diese fur Theorie und Praxis? - Wie kann die strukturelle Komplexitat von Daten beschrieben und analysiert werden? Das Buch richtet sich an Studierende in Mathematik- und Informatik-Studiengangen, die entsprechende Lehrveranstaltungen an Hochschulen aller Art besuchen oder sich unabhangig davon weiterbilden moechten. Alle formalen Grundlagen werden mathematisch prazise und ausfuhrlich dargestellt bzw. bewiesen, viele detaillierte Erklarungen und Querverweise erleichtern dabei das Verstandnis der Zusammenhange. Dadurch ist das Buch auch fur Studierende der Informatik mit Fokus auf aktuelle praktische Problemstellungen und Anwendungsmoeglichkeiten, etwa im Bereich der Datenanalyse, gut zuganglich. Das Lehrbuch ist hervorragend zum Selbststudium geeignet. Jedes Kapitel beginnt mit einer kurzen Motivation des folgenden Inhalts. Ausfuhrliche Erklarungen foerdern das Verstandnis, viele Beispiele und Aufgaben dienen der Festigung des Wissens und dem Einuben der dargestellten Methoden und Verfahren. Zu fast allen Aufgaben sind im Text oder am Ende des Buches Musterloesungen aufgefuhrt. Zusammenfassungen am Kapitelende bieten daruber hinaus Gelegenheit, den Stoff zu reflektieren.

Although the economy has always been changing, ever more innovations now seem to accelerate the transformation process. Are there any laws governing the incessant global change? Does it accord with our intentions and desires and make us happier? Do our institutions and our democracies cope with the challenges? How does economic theory explain what is going on? In this volume, experts in the field discuss the advances that evolutionary economics has made in exploring questions like these. The broad range of topics include a review of the development of the field: its conceptual and methodological characteristics are outlined; problems posed by macroeconomic evolution and the institutional challenges are highlighted; and, last but not least, the implications of the evolution of the economy for wellbeing and sustainability are addressed. Taken together, the contributions demonstrate the potential of an evolutionary paradigm for making sense of economic change and for assessing its consequences.

Auf wie viele Arten und Weisen koennen die Elemente einer Menge einer anderen zugeordnet werden? Wie viele Moeglichkeiten gibt es, aus einer Menge eine bestimmte Anzahl von Elementen auszuwahlen? Wie koennen Summen berechnet werden? Wie koennen Rekursionsgleichungen aufgeloest werden? Das sind Fragestellungen, die in vielen Bereichen der Informatik geloest werden mussen. Das Buch gibt eine Einfuhrung in Konzepte, Methoden und Verfahren der Diskreten Mathematik, insbesondere der Kombinatorik, mit denen solche Fragestellungen behandelt werden koennen. Wegen seiner didaktischen Elemente wie Vorgabe von Lernzielen, Zusammenfassungen, Marginalien und einer Vielzahl von UEbungen mit Musterloesungen eignet sich das Buch nicht nur als Begleitlekture zu entsprechenden Informatik- und Mathematik-Lehrveranstaltungen, sondern insbesondere auch zum Selbststudium.

Logiken, Mengen, Relationen, Funktionen, Induktion und Rekursion sind grundlegende mathematische Konzepte und Methoden, die in allen Bereichen der Informatik fur die Beschreibung von Problemen und deren Loesung benoetigt werden. Das Beherrschen dieser Konzepte und Methoden ist Voraussetzung fur das Studium fast aller weiteren Informatik-Module, nicht nur in Bereichen der Mathematik und der Theoretischen Informatik, sondern auch in Bereichen der Praktischen Informatik, wie z.B. Programmierung, Datenstrukturen, Algorithmen und Datenbanken. Das Buch stellt die grundlegenden Begriffe, ihre Eigenschaften und Anwendungsmoeglichkeiten schrittweise vor. Das Verstandnis der Begriffe und deren Zusammenhang und Zusammenwirken wird u.a. durch Lernziele, integrierte UEbungsaufgaben mit Musterloesungen und Marginalien unterstutzt; das Buch ist zum Selbststudium geeignet.