The Harvard-MIT complexity approach to development and Austrian economics: Similarities and policy implications

In recent years, researchers from MIT and Harvard University have developed a complexity approach to economic development. This perspective implicitly follows some characteristic elements of the complexity scientific paradigm emerged in the second half of the twentieth century but focuses on a practical application to economic development. As in the more general theory of complexity economics, this Harvard-MIT approach has many points in common with Austrian economics. This paper highlights these similarities, concerning capital theory, entrepreneurship, a knowledge-based view of the economy, organizational capabilities, and economic growth. As a result of these similarities, we also present the policy implications derived from the shared elements of the two currents, which materializes in the idea that the Harvard-MIT approach can adopt the Market Policy Pogramme (MPP), conceived by David Harper as a practical application of the fundamental theoretical principles of Austrian economics.