Learning-by-doing: an insight worthy of the pantheon and how to do it in teams

Abstract In this paper, I pick up on an important theme in Mario Rizzo’s work: that rationality should be understood more broadly than the rational choice model as learning to adjust behaviour in the light of experience and the mistakes that it yields. In particular, I focus on learning-by-doing (LBD). I argue in the first part of the paper that it should be regarded as one of the central insights in economics, alongside those that are more usually recognised like the gains from trade and the importance of unintended consequences. I use Smith and Hirschman’s discussion of LBD to ground this claim. In the second part of the paper, I turn to the determinants of LBD in teams. I argue that the key rule or constitutional/policy design question is how best to embrace the diversity that is central to LBD within teams without this undermining the social origins of co-operation in teams.