Competing R&D Strategies in an Evolutionary Industry Model

This article aims to test the relevance of learning throughgenetic algorithms, in contrast to fixed R&D rules, in a simplifiedversion of the evolutionary industry model of Nelson and Winter.These two R&D strategies arecompared from the points of view of industry performance(welfare) and firms' relative performance (competitive edge):simulations results clearly show that learning is a source oftechnological and social efficiency as well as a means formarket domination.