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Series:   Elements in Evolutionary Economics

Institutional Acceleration

The Consequences of Technological Change in a Digital Economy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2025

Darcy W. E. Allen ,
Chris Berg  and
Jason Potts
Darcy W. E. Allen
Affiliation:
RMIT University
Chris Berg
Affiliation:
RMIT University
Jason Potts
Affiliation:
RMIT University

Summary

This Element develops a theory of institutional acceleration to explain the transformation to a digital economy through a cluster of frontier technologies: artificial intelligence, blockchain, quantum computing, cryptography, and low-earth orbit infrastructure. Unlike previous technological revolutions, these technologies transform not how we organise things, but how we coordinate economic activity. The authors' supertransition thesis explains why these digital technologies shouldn't be understood in isolation, but rather should be understood in how they combine to create new institutional possibilities, leading to more open, complex, and global economic systems. Drawing on evolutionary economics and institutional theory, this Element shows how this evolutionary process is reshaping our institutional economic architecture. Ultimately, institutional acceleration drives greater computation and knowledge into our economic systems.
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Keywords

institutional evolutionsupertransitioninstitutional technologydigital economytechnological change
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Evolutionary Economics
Online ISBN: 9781009638616
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 29 May 2025

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