History-Friendly models: An overview of the case of the Computer Industry

This paper presents and discusses the methodological rationale, the basic s tructure and some first results of a new approach to the analysis of proces ses of industry evolution: "history-friendly" models, concerning the histor y of the computer industry. The specific purpose of this paper is to evalua te in more general terms the potential and limits of this approach, rather than the formal structure or results of a particular case. The paper illustrates first the philosophy beneath the use of "history-frie ndly" models. Then, after a brief summary of the main stylized facts about the evolution of the computer industry and of the main theoretical issues r aised up by our investigation, we go on presenting the structure of the mod el. We then discuss the main results and some preliminary exercises involvi ng different hypotheses on agents' behavior (strategies of product diversif ication) and policy issues.