Learning from the right neighbour

An interview with Jack Vromen

Authors

  • Jack J. Vromen EIPE, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v8i1.193

Keywords:

Jack Vromen, interview, evolutionary economics, EIPE, institutions, philosophy, methodology

Abstract

The Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics interviewed Jack Vromen about becoming a philosopher of economics, his interest in evolution and its relation to economics, and the role he has played in the formation of EIPE, a major centre for the study of philosophy of economics. In this interview Vromen explains why he believes biology is a discipline much closer to economics than many economists realize, why the concept of evolution is important for understanding economic processes and for the economic discipline, and also why evolutionary economics never became mainstream when many believed that it would.

Author Biography

Jack J. Vromen, EIPE, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Jack J. Vromen (Heerlen, 1958) is professor of theoretical philosophy, with a special emphasis on the philosophy of economics, dean of the philosophy faculty at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and director (and co-founder) of the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE). He earned master’s degrees in economics and in philosophy of economics from the University of Tilburg, and a PhD in economics from the University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Neil De Marchi.

Vromen has a particular research interest in evolutionary thinking and economic methodology. He is the author of Economic evolution: an enquiry into the foundations of ‘new institutional economics’ (1995), and (co-)editor of numerous anthologies, including Institutions and the evolution of capitalism; implications of evolutionary economics (1999, with John Groenewegen), The social institutions of capitalism: evolution and design of social contracts (2003, with Hans van Oosterhout and Pursey Heugens), and most recently The economics of economists (2014, with Alessandro Lanteri).

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Published

2015-07-03

How to Cite

Vromen, J. J. (2015). Learning from the right neighbour: An interview with Jack Vromen. Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 8(1), 82–97. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v8i1.193

Issue

Vol. 8 No. 1 (2015): Spring 2015

Section

Interviews