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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Richard R. Nelson |
| Date: | 2017–08–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2017/18&r=evo |
| By: | Franck, Raphael; Galor, Oded |
| Abstract: | This research explores the long-run effect of industrialization on the process of development. In contrast to conventional wisdom that views industrial development as a catalyst for economic growth, the study establishes that while the adoption of industrial technology was conducive to economic development in the short-run, it has had a detrimental effect on standards of living in the long-run. Exploiting exogenous geographic and climatic sources of regional variation in the diffusion and adoption of steam engines during the French industrial revolution, the research establishes that regions in which industrialization was more intensive experienced an increase in literacy rates more swiftly and generated higher income per capita in the subsequent decades. Nevertheless, intensive industrialization has had an adverse effect on income per capita, employment and equality by the turn of the 21st century. This adverse effect reflects neither higher unionization and wage rates nor trade protection, but rather underinvestment in human capital and lower employment in skilled-intensive occupations. These findings suggest that the characteristics that permitted the onset of industrialization, rather than the adoption of industrial technology per se, have been the source of prosperity among the currently developed economies that experienced an early industrialization. Thus, developing economies may benefit from the allocation of resources towards human capital formation rather than towards the promotion of industrial development. |
| Keywords: | Economic Growth; Human Capital; Industrialization; Steam Engine |
| JEL: | N33 N34 O14 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12278&r=evo |
| By: | Ron Boschma |
| Abstract: | This chapter aims to sketch a short history of the differentiated knowledge base (DKB) literature that has been initiated and pioneered by Bjorn Asheim. In its formative years, the DKB approach described three knowledge bases and explored the nature of knowledge sourcing and its geographical extent within each knowledge base. We identify seven claims proposed by DKB scholars concerning the geography of knowledge bases. Lately, DKB 1.0 has been challenged on several grounds. In recent years, a second generation of DKB literature, dubbed as DKB 2.0, has emerged, becoming more tightly connected to the evolutionary approach in economic geography. DKB 2.0 takes a combinatorial approach to innovation and links it to evolutionary concepts like related variety and proximity. Its prime focus is on identifying combinations between knowledge bases and, to an increasing extent, combinations within knowledge bases, and assessing whether these combinations enhance innovative performance. As DKB 2.0 is still in an embryonic stage, we identify promising avenues for future research, inspired by evolutionary thinking. |
| Date: | 2017–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:egu:wpaper:1721&r=evo |
| By: | Andreas Drichoutis (Agricultural University of Athens); Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr. (Department of Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, University of Arkansas,) |
| Abstract: | Economic analysis assumes that consumer behavior can be rationalized by a utility function. Previous research has shown that some decision-making quality can be captured by permanent cognitive ability but has not examined how a temporary load in subjects' working memory can a ect economic rationality. In a controlled laboratory experiment, we exogenously vary cognitive load by asking subjects to memorize a number while they undertake an induced budget allocation task (Choi et al., 2007a,b). Using a number of manipulation checks, we verify that cognitive load has adverse a ects on subjects' performance in reasoning tasks. However, we nd no e ect in any of the goodness-of- t measures that measure consistency of subjects' choices with the Generalized Axiom of Revealed Preferences (GARP), despite having a sample size large enough to detect even small di erences between treatments with 80% power. Our nding suggests that researchers need not worry about economic rationality breaking down when subjects are placed under temporary working memory load. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive load, rationality, revealed preferences, working memory, response times, laboratory experiment |
| JEL: | C91 D03 D11 D12 G11 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aua:wpaper:2017-2&r=evo |
| By: | Rudolf Kerschbamer; Daniel Neururer; Alexander Gruber |
| Abstract: | Much is known about heterogeneity in social preferences and about heterogeneity in lying aversion - but little is known about the relation between the two at the individual level. Are the altruists simply upright persons who do not only care about the well-being of others but also about honesty? And are the selfish those who lie whenever lying maximizes their material payoff? This paper addresses those questions in experiments that first elicit subject's social preferences and then let them make decisions in an environment where lying increases the own material payoff and has either consequences for the payoffs of others or no consequences for others. We find that altruists lie less when lying hurts another party but we do not find any evidence in support of the hypothesis that altruists are more (or less) averse to lying than others in environments where lying has no effects on the payoffs of others. |
| Keywords: | deception, lies, social preferences, distributional preferences, equality equivalence test |
| JEL: | C91 D63 D64 |
| Date: | 2017–09–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:inn:wpaper:2017-18&r=evo |