Competing R&D Strategies in an Evolutionary Industry Model.

This article aims to test the relevance of learning through genetic algorithms, in contrast to fixed R&D rules, in a simplified version of the evolutionary industry model of Nelson and Winter. These two R&D strategies are compared from the points of view of industry performance (welfare) and firms' relative performance (competitive edge): simulations results clearly show that learning is a source of technological and social efficiency as well as a means for market domination. Copyright 2002 by Kluwer Academic Publishers