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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | U. Witt |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews the way of thinking about economic problems and the research agenda associated with the evolutionary approach to economics. The general focus of this approach is on the processes that transform the economy from within and on their consequences for firms and industries, production, trade, employment and growth. The entry highlights the major contributions to evolutionary economics and explains its key concepts together with some of their implications. |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-05&r=evo |
| By: | C. Cordes; P. J. Richerson; R. McElreath; P. Strimling |
| Abstract: | One reason why firms exist, this paper argues, is because they are suitable organizations within which cooperative production systems based on human social predispositions can evolve. In addition, we show how an entrepreneur – given these predispositions – can shape human behavior within a firm. To illustrate these processes, we will present a model that depicts how the biased transmission of cultural contents via social learning processes within the firm influence employees’ behavior and the performance of the firm. These biases can be traced back to evolved social predispositions. Humans lived in tribal scale social systems based on significant amounts of intra- and even intergroup cooperation for tens if not a few hundred thousand years before the first complex societies arose. Firms rest upon the social psychology originally evolved for tribal life. We also relate our conclusions to empirical evidence on the performance and size of different kinds of organizations. Modern organizations have functions rather different from ancient tribes, leading to friction between our social predispositions and organization goals. Firms that manage to reduce this friction will tend to function better. |
| Keywords: | Theory of the Firm, Cultural Evolution, Entrepreneurship, Firm Performance, Cooperation |
| JEL: | L25 D21 M13 M14 C61 |
| Date: | 2006–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-06&r=evo |
| By: | Jeremy Greenwood (University of Rochester); Nezih Guner (Pennsylvania State University) |
| Abstract: | Social norms are influenced by the technological environment that a society faces. Behavioral modes reflect purposive decision making by individuals, given the environment they live in. Thus, as technology changes, so might social norms. There were big changes in social norms during the 20th century, especially in sexual mores. In 1900 only six percent of unwed women engaged in premarital sex. Now, three quarters do. It is argued here that this was the result of technological improvement in contraceptives, which lowered the cost of premarital sex. The evolution from an abstinent to a promiscuous society is studied using an equilibrium matching model. |
| Keywords: | Social change; the sexual revolution; technological progress in contraceptives; bilateral search. |
| JEL: | E1 J1 O3 |
| Date: | 2005–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eag:rereps:9&r=evo |