The Evolution of Standards [Paperback]

Volker Simmering shows how globalization influences the evolution of international standards and compares the roles of mandatory and voluntary standards. He investigates the problem of technological progress in networks and analyzes the resolution of conflicts within international standardization bodies. As a result, he suggests that policy intervention and the presence of adjacent institutional arrangements are likely to improve the performance of network markets, e.g. those for information technology and telecommunication.Foreword The first essay in Volker Simmering's study in The Evolution of Standards, undertaken while at the Graduate Programme in Law and Economics in cooperation with the Institute of SocioEconomics at the University of Hamburg, examines the effects of globalization on the evolution of global standard(). The central result of this essay is that there may be too few global standards and those which do evolve are not necessarily efficient; a result that is at odds with standard economic reasoning. Simmering derives his result from the application evolutionary theory - which is becoming increasingly popular in economics, the social sci? ences, and philosophy. This branch of theory focuses on the convergence and selection of equilibria and its attendant reduction of variety. Simmering's study, very interestingly, indicates a major difference in the results of evolu? tionary reasoning when applied to the coordination of human interaction to that at the species level. Simmering shows how variety is reduced to produce homogeneity or compatibility; while in biology it has been to show how variety emerges. For example, in his The Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin tried to give an interpretation of the characteristics, diversity, and distribution of the various forms of animal and plant life as the result of a historical proc? ess involving descent with modification.Economics of networks, compatibility and standardizationEvolutionary approach to lÃj