nep-evo New Economics Papers
on Evolutionary Economics
Issue of 2018‒07‒23
six papers chosen by
Matthew Baker
City University of New York

  1. Energy, knowledge, and demo-economic development in the long run: a unified growth model By Victor Court; Emmanuel Bovari
  2. A Not so Myopic Axiomatization of Discounting By Jean-Pierre Drugeon; Thai Ha-Huy
  3. Blessed are the First: The Long-Term Effect of Birth Order on Trust. By Conzo, Pierluigi; Zotti, Roberto
  4. The Role of Metaphor and Other Cultural Means in the Development of Cognitive Processes and Emotional Sphere By Vachkov, Igor
  5. Behavioral Industrial Organization By Heidhues, Paul; Köszegi, Botond
  6. Circle of Fortune: The Long Term Impact of Western Customs Institutions in China By Gan Jin

  1. By: Victor Court (CERES-ERTI - Centre d'Enseignement et de Recherche sur l'Environnement et la Societé / Environmental Research and Teaching Institute - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris, Chaire Energie & Prospérité - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE ParisTech - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Institut Louis Bachelier); Emmanuel Bovari (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Chaire Energie & Prospérité - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - X - École polytechnique - ENSAE ParisTech - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Institut Louis Bachelier)
    Abstract: This article provides a knowledge-based and energy-centered unified growth model of the economic transition from limited to sustained growth. We model the transition between: (i) a pre-modern organic regime defined by limited growth in per capita output, high fertility, low levels of human capital, technological progress generated by learning-by-doing, and rare GPT arrivals; and (ii) a modern fossil regime characterized by sustained growth of per capita output, low fertility, high levels of human capital, technological progress generated by profit-motivated R\&D, and increasingly frequent GPT arrivals. The associated energy transition results from the endogenous shortage of renewable resources availability, and the arrival of new GPTs which redirect technological progress towards the exploitation of previously unprofitable exhaustible energy. Calibrations of the model are currently in progress: (i) to replicate the historical experience of England from 1560 to 2010; and (ii) to compare the different trajectories of Western Europe and Eastern Asia.
    Keywords: Unified Growth Theory,Useful Knowledge,Energy Transition,Demography
    Date: 2018–01–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01698755&r=evo
  2. By: Jean-Pierre Drugeon (PSE - Paris School of Economics, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS Paris - École normale supérieure - Paris - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Thai Ha-Huy (EPEE - Centre d'Etudes des Politiques Economiques - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne)
    Abstract: This article builds an axiomatization of inter-temporal trade-offs that makes an explicit account of the distant future and therefore encompasses motives related to sustainability, transmission to offsprings and altruism. The focus is on separable representations and the approach is completed following a decision-theory index based approach that is applied to utility streams. This enlightens the limits of the commonly used tail intensity requesites for the evaluation of utility streams: in this article, these are supersed and replaced by an axiomatic approach to optimal myopia degrees that in its turn precedes the determination of optimal discount. The overall approach is anchored in the new and explicit proof of a temporal decomposition of the preference orders between the distant future and the close future itself directly related to the determination of the optimal myopia degrees. The argument is shown to provide a novel understanding of temporal biases with the scope for a distant future bias when the finite dimensional gets influenced by the infinite dimensional. The reference to robust orders and pessimism-like axioms finally allows for determining tractable representations for the indexes.
    Abstract: JEL Codes: D11, D15, D90.
    Keywords: Discount,Temporal Order Decompositions,Infinite Dimensional Topologies,Axiomatization,Myopia
    Date: 2018–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01761962&r=evo
  3. By: Conzo, Pierluigi; Zotti, Roberto (University of Turin)
    Abstract: The renewed interest by the economic literature in the effect of birth order on children’s outcomes has neglected trust as a long-term output of familial environment. Acknowledging childhood as a crucial stage of life for the formation of social preferences, we go deeper into the early-life determinants of trust, a widely recognized driver of socio-economic success. We analyze if and how differences in the order of birth predict heterogeneous self-reported trust levels in Britain. We draw hypotheses from psychology, economics and sociology, and test alternative explanations to the association between birth order and trust. Relying on an index measuring birth order independently from sibship size, we find a negative and robust effect of birth order, with laterborns trusting less than their older siblings. This effect is not accounted for by personality traits, strength of family ties, risk aversion and parental inputs. It is only partially explained by complementary human-capital outcomes, and it is robust when we use alternative dependent variables and control for endogenous fertility. Multilevel estimates suggest that trust is mostly driven by within- rather than between-family characteristics. The effect of birth order is eclipsed by education outcomes only for women, while it is counterbalanced by mother’s education for the entire sample, thereby leading to relevant policy implications.
    Date: 2018–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uto:dipeco:201810&r=evo
  4. By: Vachkov, Igor (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA))
    Abstract: he paper discusses different views on the essence of metaphorical, compares various definitions of metaphor, analyzes ways of its application in various areas of human activity.
    Date: 2018–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rnp:wpaper:061805&r=evo
  5. By: Heidhues, Paul; Köszegi, Botond
    Abstract: This discussion paper is a preliminary version of a survey written for the Handbook of Behavioral Economics.
    Date: 2018–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12988&r=evo
  6. By: Gan Jin (Department of International Economic Policy, University of Freiburg)
    Abstract: This paper studies the persistent impact of good institutions on economic development in China. By exploiting a British-driven institutional switch in part of China's customs stations in 1902, I find that counties that were more affected by the British customs institutions are also better developed today. Moreover, I show that the institutional switch was exogenous to the pre-colonial development, and I provide different estima- tion models to reveal a robust and causal relationship between good institutions and economic development.
    Keywords: Institutions, Economic development, Treaty ports, Chinese Maritime Customs Service (CMCS), China
    JEL: N15 O10 P51
    Date: 2018–07
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fre:wpaper:37&r=evo

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