The Contemporary Relevance of Thorstein Veblen's Institutional-Evolutionary Political Economy (Critical Essay‪)‬

1 Introduction After being in the doldrums for fifty years or so it seems that Veblenian institutional-evolutionary economics is starting to come of age. The Association of Evolutionary Economists (AFEE), a seminal grouping of Veblenian and other institutionalists that publishes the Journal of Economic Issues, has been operating energetically in the US for over three decades. But only since the 1980s has a sustained interest in Veblenian themes crossed the Atlantic. For instance, through the creative efforts of mainly American and European institutionalists, the broadly-based European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) was organised in 1989. EAEPE recently had a centenary celebration conference on the subject of Thorstein Veblen's (1857-1929) legacy in political economy (see Louca and Perlman 2000).