The Veblen-Commons Award is presented annually by the

Association for Evolutionary Economics The Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) is an international organization of economists working in the institutionalist and evolutionary traditions of Thorstein Veblen, John R. Commons and Wesley Mitchell. It is part of the Allied Social ...

in recognition of outstanding scholarly contributions to the field of

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

institutional economics Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping economic behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instinct-oriented dichotomy between technology on t ...

. It is the Association’s highest honor, named after two key originators of the evolutionary-institutionalist tradition,

Thorstein B. Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, '' The Theory of the Leisure Class'' ...

and

John R. Commons John Rogers Commons (October 13, 1862 – May 11, 1945) was an American institutional economist, Georgist, progressive and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Early years John R. Commons was born in Hollansburg, Ohio on O ...

Evolutionary institutional economics

According to evolutionary institutionalism, economics “is the science of social provisioning.” To be sure, markets are important, but the

market system A market system (or market ecosystem) is any systematic process enabling many market players to offer and demand: helping buyers and sellers interact and make deals. It is not just the price mechanism but the entire system of regulation, qual ...

is only one institution that influences the social provisioning process. Moreover, that system can take countless forms and is shaped by history and culture. Thus, understanding culture—how it evolves and its role in economic life—is a foundational element of evolutionary institutionalism. Empiricism is also a vital part of the evolutionary-institutionalist tradition. In fact, along with Veblen and Commons,

Wesley C. Mitchell Wesley Clair Mitchell (August 5, 1874 – October 29, 1948) was an American economist known for his empirical work on business cycles and for guiding the National Bureau of Economic Research in its first decades. Mitchell was referred to as Thor ...

—founder of the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic c ...

—was a major early contributor to institutionalism. Since the days of Veblen, Commons, and Mitchell, evolutionary institutionalists have sought to collect and use economic and social data (quantitative and qualitative in nature) in service of both scientific understanding and practical problem solving.

Award recipients

The Veblen-Commons Award has been given since 1969, with the first recipient being

Allan Gruchy Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) (Al ...

. Other early recipients include

Gardiner Means Gardiner Coit Means (June 8, 1896 in Windham, Connecticut – February 15, 1988 in Vienna, Virginia) was an American economist who worked at Harvard University, where he met lawyer-diplomat Adolf A. Berle. Together they wrote the seminal work of ...

Gunnar Myrdal Karl Gunnar Myrdal ( ; ; 6 December 1898 – 17 May 1987) was a Swedish economist and sociologist. In 1974, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences along with Friedrich Hayek for "their pioneering work in the theory of money a ...

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...

, and

Rexford Tugwell Rexford Guy Tugwell (July 10, 1891 – July 21, 1979) was an American economist who became part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first "Brain Trust", a group of Columbia University academics who helped develop policy recommendations leading up to R ...

. In the 1980s, J. Fagg Foster, David Hamilton, Harry Trebing, Marc Tool, and Wendell Gordon were among the winners. In the 1990s, winners included Wallace Peterson,

Robert Heilbroner Robert L. Heilbroner (March 24, 1919 – January 4, 2005) was an American economist and historian of economic thought. The author of some 20 books, Heilbroner was best known for ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great ...

, and

Hyman Minsky Hyman Philip Minsky (September 23, 1919 – October 24, 1996) was an American economist, a professor of economics at Washington University in St. Louis, and a distinguished scholar at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College. His research ...

. More recent winners include Anne Mayhew, Edythe Miller, F. Gregory Hayden, Willam Dugger, Glen Atkinson, William Waller, Jim Peach, Janet Knoedler, and

James K. Galbraith James Kenneth Galbraith (born January 29, 1952) is an American economist. He is currently a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior Schola ...

. A detailed description of the award, biography of the current winner, and list of past recipients can be found on the AFEE website.

References

External links

The Association for Evolutionary Economics
''(publisher of award)'' {{Econ-stub Economics awards Thorstein Veblen