|
on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Weibull, Jörgen (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics); Alger, Ingela (Boston College) |
| Abstract: | Recognizing that individualism, or weak family ties, may be favorable to economic development, we ask how family ties interact with climate to determine individual behavior and whether there is reason to believe that the strength of family ties evolves differently in different climates. For this purpose, we develop a simple model of the interaction between two individuals who are more or less altruistic towards each other. Each individual exerts effort to produce a consumption good under uncertainty. Outputs are observed and each individual chooses how much, if any, of his or her output to share with the other. We analyze how the equilibrium outcome depends on altruism and climate for ex ante identical individuals. We also consider (a) "coerced altruism," that is, situations where a social norm dictates how output be shared, (b) the effects of insurance markets, and (c) the role of institutional quality. The evolutionary robustness of altruism is analyzed and we study how this depends on climate. |
| Keywords: | altruism; family ties; individualism; moral hazard; evolution. |
| JEL: | D02 D13 |
| Date: | 2006–07–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:hastef:0633&r=evo |
| By: | Sandra Tavares Silva (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia do Porto, Universidade do Porto); Aurora A.C. Teixeira (CEMPRE, Faculdade de Economia do Porto, Universidade do Porto) |
| Abstract: | This work presents a comprehensive survey on evolutionary economics intending at exploring the main research path and contributions of this theorizing framework using bibliometric methods. This documentation effort is based on a review of the abstracts from articles published in all economic journals gathered from the Econlit database over the past fifty years. Before 1990, the importance of published evolutionary related research is almost negligible. More than 90% of total papers were published after that date. An important point in the analysis is developed around the choices that have been made by evolutionist researchers in terms of formalism versus empiricism. The general perception within evolutionary (and non-evolutionary) researchers is that in this field formalization lags behind the conceptual work. However, as we show in the present paper, formal approaches have a reasonable and increasing share of published papers between 1969 and 2006 (around one-third). In contrast, purely empirical-related works are relatively scarce, involving a meagre and stagnant percentage (7%) of published works for the period 1992 up to 2006. The most important method, however, is the ‘Appreciative’ with approximately half of the articles. In addition, as evolutionary contributions apparently have not converged to an integrated approach, we document the more important paths emergent in this field. Our results show two rather extreme main research strands: ‘History of Economic Thought and Methodology’ (29.0%) and ‘Games’ (18.4%). ‘Development, Environment and Policy’ (14.2%) emerges as the third most frequent category. |
| Keywords: | evolutionary, methodology, bibliometry, Econlit |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:por:fepwps:229&r=evo |
| By: | Ronald Bosman; Frans van Winden |
| Abstract: | We investigate a novel dynamic choice problem in an experiment where emotions are measured through self-reports. The choice problem concerns the investment of an amount of money in a safe option and a risky option when there is a “global risk” of losing all earnings, from both options, including any return from the risky option. Our key finding is that global risk can reduce the amount invested in the risky option. This result cannot be explained by classical Expected Utility or by its main contenders Rank-Dependent Utility and Cumulative Prospect Theory. Anexplanation is offered by taking account of emotions, using the emotion data from the experiment and recent psychological findings. We also find that people invest less if own earnings are at stake, compared to money obtained as an endowment. |
| Keywords: | investment; global risk; real effort; emotions; dynamic choice. |
| JEL: | A12 C91 D80 G11 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:dnb:dnbwpp:112&r=evo |
| By: | Tom Brökel; Martin Binder |
| Abstract: | Innovations are inherently connected to knowledge transfers. The need of face-to-face contacts to transfer tacit knowledge is commonly argued to cause a regional dimension of innovative activities. The paper presents an alternative explanation based on a model of boundedly rational actors who search for knowledge. It is shown that a regional dimension exists in these processes that results from a regional bias in an actor’s search activities. Social embeddedness, a shared regional identity and limited spatial mobility foster this bias. We argue that insights from research on these topics can help to define the geographic size of a region. |
| Keywords: | Regional Economics, Innovation, Knowledge Transfers, Tacit Knowledge, Bounded Rationality Length 31 pages |
| JEL: | B52 D83 O31 R12 |
| Date: | 2006–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:esi:evopap:2006-12&r=evo |