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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Smaldino, Paul E.; Russell, Adam (DARPA); Zefferman, Matthew (Naval Postgraduate School); Donath, Judith; Foster, Jacob; Guilbeault, Douglas; Hilbert, Martin; Hobson, Elizabeth A.; Lerman, Kristina; Miton, Helena |
| Abstract: | A sequence of technological inventions over several centuries has dramatically lowered the cost of producing and distributing information. Because culture and societies ride on a substrate of information, these changes have profoundly impacted how we live, work, and interact with each other. This paper explores the nature of information architectures (IAs)—the features that govern how information flows within human populations. IAs include physical and digital infrastructures, norms and institutions, and algorithmic technologies for filtering, producing, and disseminating information. IAs shape everyday lives and cultural practices; they can reinforce societal biases and discriminations and lead to prosocial outcomes as well as unintended social ills. IAs have culturally evolved rapidly with human usage, creating new affordances and new problems for the dynamics of social interaction. We explore the significant societal outcomes instigated by shifts in IAs and call for an enhanced understanding of the social implications of increasing IA complexity, the nature of competition among IAs, and the creation of mechanisms for coordination to guide the beneficial use of IAs. Navigating the challenges IAs pose requires creative experimentation, novel tools, and an understanding of societal norms and institutions. Given that the speed and influence of IAs are accelerating, research in this area is increasingly imperative to ensure that the nature of IAs aligns with a collectively desirable future. |
| Date: | 2024–09–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:c7vrw |
| By: | Christopher Graser (Harvard University); Takako Fujiwara-Greve (Keio University); Julian García (Monash University); Matthijs van Veelen (University of Amsterdam) |
| Abstract: | Repetition is a classic mechanism for the evolution of cooperation. The standard way to study repeated games is to assume that there is an exogenous probability with which every interaction is repeated. If it is sufficiently likely that interactions are repeated, then reciprocity and cooperation can evolve together in repeated prisoner’s dilemmas. Who individuals interact with can however also be under their control, or at least to some degree. If we change the standard model so that it allows for individuals to terminate the interaction with their current partner, and find someone else to play their prisoner’s dilemmas with, then this limits the effectiveness of disciplining each other within the partnership, as one can always leave to escape punishment. The option to leave can however also be used to get away from someone who is not cooperating, which also has a disciplining effect. We find that the net effect of introducing the option to leave on cooperation is positive; with the option to leave, the average amount of cooperation that evolves in simulations is substantially higher than without. One of the reasons for this increase in cooperation is that partner choice creates endogenous phenotypic assortment. The model thereby produces a good match with many forms of human cooperation in repeated set- tings, where we end up interacting, not only with random others that we cannot separate from, once matched, or with others that are genetically related to us, but also with partners that we choose to stay with, and that end up being similarly dependable not to defect on us as we are not to defect on them. |
| JEL: | C73 |
| Date: | 2024–05–30 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tin:wpaper:20240038 |
| By: | Bathelt, Harald; Storper, Michael |
| Abstract: | Evolutionary approaches in economic geography have contributed substantially to the growing body of knowledge of regional development processes and their underlying mechanisms. One key concept in the literature on evolutionary economic geography is that of related variety. Herein, regional industry structure is represented through the level of related variety of technologies, skills, or outputs. The related variety concept proposes that regional economic development is favored when an economy diversifies into products or technologies that are closely related to the stock of existing activities. In this article, we raise substantive questions regarding the internal logic of the concept of related variety, its spatial expressions, measurement specifics, empirical regularities and biases, and its possible short- and long-term effects on regional development. Based on this investigation, we make suggestions for improvements to future research. |
| Keywords: | economic geographies of places; evolutionary economic geography (EEG); regional development; regional specialization; related variety |
| JEL: | L23 R11 |
| Date: | 2023–11–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:120162 |
| By: | Marzian, Johannes; Laabs, Julian; Müller, Johannes; Requate, Tilman |
| Abstract: | While our understanding of long-term trends in material wealth inequality in prehistoric societies has expanded in recent decades, we know little about long-term trends in other dimensions of wealth and about social developments within particular societal segments. This paper provides the first evidence of inequality in relational wealth within the upper societal segment of a supra-regional network of communities in prehistoric Central Europe over the first four millennia BCE. To this end, we compiled a novel dataset of 5000 single-funeral burial mounds and employed burial mound volume as a proxy for the buried individual’s relational wealth. Our analysis reveals a consistently high level of inequality among the buried individuals, showing a wave-like pattern with an increasing trend over time. Additionally, our findings show temporal shifts in the size of the upper societal segment. Based on a review of archeological and paleo-environmental evidence, the temporal change in inequality may be explained by technological progress, climate and population dynamics, trade and social networks, and/or sociopolitical transformations. |
| Keywords: | Economic History, Social Inequality, Burial Mound Data, Waves of Inequality, Prehistorical Central Europe |
| JEL: | N33 |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:ifwkie:302043 |