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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Daniel J. Benjamin; David Cesarini; Patrick Turley; Alexander Strudwick Young |
| Abstract: | Rapid progress has been made in identifying links between human genetic variation and social and behavioral phenotypes. Applications in mainstream economics are beginning to emerge. This review aims to provide the background needed to bring the interested economist to the frontier of social-science genomics. Our review is structured around a theoretical framework that nests many of the key methods, concepts and tools found in the literature. We clarify key assumptions and appropriate interpretations. After reviewing several significant applications, we conclude by outlining future advances in genetics that will expand the scope of potential applications, and we discuss the ethical and communication challenges that arise in this area of research. |
| JEL: | D87 I1 Q57 |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:32404&r= |
| By: | Goerg, Sebastian J. (TUMCS for Biotechnology and Sustainability, Technical University Munich, Straubing, Germany); Himmler, Oliver (University of Erfurt, Germany); König, Tobias (Department of Economics and Statistics) |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the contagion effects of norm-violating behavior across decision situations. Through a series of laboratory and field experiments, we empirically establish the conditions under which norm-breaking behavior in one decision situation leads individuals who observe this to violate norms in other, distinct decision situations. Our laboratory findings show that these spillover effects are more pronounced when the norms underlying the decision situations are perceived to be similar. However, spillovers can also affect decision situations governed by relatively dissimilar norms if the observers of norm violations have had the opportunity to first violate the same norm as the observed violator themselves. In an accompanying field experiment, we underscore the economic importance of norm similarity for spillover effects. When workers are exposed to information about celebrities evading taxes, they exhibit significantly higher rates of workplace theft than those in the control group, yet this exposure does not negatively affect work morale. |
| Keywords: | Norms; Cheating; Peer Effects; Tax Evasion; Workplace Theft; Work Effort; Conditional Compliance; Unethical Behavior |
| JEL: | A12 C93 D01 D03 |
| Date: | 2024–04–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:vxesta:2024_008&r= |
| By: | Alger, Ingela; Rivero-Wildemauwe, José Ignacio |
| Abstract: | We conduct a laboratory experiment using framing to assess the willing-ness to “sell a lemon”, i.e., to undertake an action that benefits self but hurts the other (the “buyer”). We seek to disentangle the role of other-regarding preferences and (Kan-tian) moral concerns, and to test if it matters whether the decision is described in neutral terms or as a market situation. When evaluating an action, morally motivated individuals consider what their own payo would be if—hypothetically—the roles were reversed and the other subject chose the same action (universalization). We vary the salience of role uncertainty, thus varying the ease for participants to envisage the role-reversal scenario. We find that subjects are (1) more likely to “sell a lemon” in the market frame, and (2) less likely to do so when the role uncertainty is salient. We also structurally estimate other-regarding and Kantian moral concern parameters. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:iastwp:129329&r= |
| By: | Angela Cools; Jared Grooms; Krzysztof Karbownik; Siobhan O'Keefe; Joseph Price; Anthony Wray |
| Abstract: | The nineteenth-century American family experienced tremendous demographic, economic, and institutional changes. By using birth order effects as a proxy for family environment, and linked census data on men born between 1835 and 1910, we study how the family’s role in human capital production evolved over this period. We find firstborn premiums for occupational outcomes, marriage, and fertility that are similar across census waves. Our results indicate that the returns to investments in the family environment were stable over a long period. |
| Keywords: | birth order, parental investments, occupation outcomes, intergenerational mobility, marriage, fertility |
| JEL: | J13 J62 N30 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11095&r= |
| By: | Simone Brusatin; Tommaso Padoan; Andrea Coletta; Domenico Delli Gatti; Aldo Glielmo |
| Abstract: | Agent-based models (ABMs) are simulation models used in economics to overcome some of the limitations of traditional frameworks based on general equilibrium assumptions. However, agents within an ABM follow predetermined, not fully rational, behavioural rules which can be cumbersome to design and difficult to justify. Here we leverage multi-agent reinforcement learning (RL) to expand the capabilities of ABMs with the introduction of fully rational agents that learn their policy by interacting with the environment and maximising a reward function. Specifically, we propose a 'Rational macro ABM' (R-MABM) framework by extending a paradigmatic macro ABM from the economic literature. We show that gradually substituting ABM firms in the model with RL agents, trained to maximise profits, allows for a thorough study of the impact of rationality on the economy. We find that RL agents spontaneously learn three distinct strategies for maximising profits, with the optimal strategy depending on the level of market competition and rationality. We also find that RL agents with independent policies, and without the ability to communicate with each other, spontaneously learn to segregate into different strategic groups, thus increasing market power and overall profits. Finally, we find that a higher degree of rationality in the economy always improves the macroeconomic environment as measured by total output, depending on the specific rational policy, this can come at the cost of higher instability. Our R-MABM framework is general, it allows for stable multi-agent learning, and represents a principled and robust direction to extend existing economic simulators. |
| Date: | 2024–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2405.02161&r= |