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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Sergio Cesaratto |
| Abstract: | Models, Methods, and Morality discusses moral values in the field of ancient economic history, where neoclassical hegemony in the form of the New Institutional Economics has progressively gained ground. The book mainly criticises mainstream economics for focusing on quantitative growth without much regard to its social consequences. The spirit of this review is a constructive encouragement to build an alternative approach to economic history possibly based on the classical economists’ surplus approach, taking also advantage of the familiarity that scholars of ancient societies have with the concept of economic surplus. The risk is that without a resolute criticism of mainstream economics and the adoption of an alternative point of view, mainstream economics might paternalistically reabsorb the legitimate moral criticism that pervades many of the contributions to the volume. Being based on a simple heuristic of the economic sources of the élites’ wealth and not possessing a pre-packaged view of human behaviour, surplus theory may usefully be at the core of a socially sensitive, economic history agenda. |
| Keywords: | Economic history, Ancient economies, Surplus approach, New Institutional Economics, Moral economy Jel Classification: B12, B51, N01 |
| Date: | 2024–12 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:usi:wpaper:923 |
| By: | D’amelio B Pietro (CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IRD [Occitanie] - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier, NeuroPSI - Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Carlson V Nora (Université Paris-Saclay); Arnaud Tognetti (CEE-M - Centre d'Economie de l'Environnement - Montpellier - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier); Sentís Marina; Silva R Liliana (CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos [Vairao] - Universidade do Porto = University of Porto); Rybak Fanny (NeuroPSI - Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay - Université Paris-Saclay - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Covas Rita (CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos [Vairao] - Universidade do Porto = University of Porto); Doutrelant Claire (CEFE - Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive - UPVM - Université Paul-Valéry - Montpellier 3 - EPHE - École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - IRD [Occitanie] - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - Institut Agro Montpellier - Institut Agro - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement - UM - Université de Montpellier, University of Cape Town) |
| Abstract: | Cooperative behaviour is widespread in animals and is likely to be the result of multiple selective pressures. A contentious hypothesis is that helping enhances the probability of obtaining a sexual partner (i.e., confers direct benefits through sexual selection). Under this hypothesis, cooperative behaviours may have evolved into a signal. Consequently, we would expect individuals to enhance cooperation when a potential mate is present, to signal their status and quality. We evaluated this possibility in the cooperatively breeding sociable weaver (Philetairus socius). We simulated the presence of different types of individuals using a playback to test whether the simulated presence of an unknown individual, possibly a potential mate, increases provisioning rate in two classes of cooperating birds : breeders and helpers. If the signal is the provisioning rate in itself we expected increased feeding rates of male helpers during the simulated presence of an unknown female. Contrary to our predictions, the simulated presence in the audience of an unknown individual did not influence the nestling provisioning rate of birds of any sex and class. From these results, we conclude that in this species the variation in provisioning rate is unlikely to be used as a signal in a sexual selection context. However, we also highlight the limitations of our methods and suggest improvements that future studies should incorporate when testing audience effects on cooperation. Significance statementAnimals may cooperate to gain direct benefits, like attracting mates. This happens for example in humans. In species where cooperation leads to direct sexual benefits, when the appropriate audience is present, (i.e., a potential mate), helpers should enhance their cooperation. To determine whether helping to raise others' young varies according to who is watching, we used playbacks to simulate the presence of unknown individuals of opposite sex (potential mates) while helpers were feeding young. Helping, quantified here as number of times food was brought to the chicks over an hour, was not affected by the simulated audience. We concluded that in sociable weavers variation in provisioning rate is unlikely to be a signal to obtain direct sexual benefits. |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04892327 |
| By: | Federico, Giovanni; Tena Junguito, Antonio |
| Abstract: | The number of people is one of the most basic facts about any society, but it is difficult to ascertain. The data are missing for most of human history and scarce until the early 19th century for advanced countries and the early 20th century for the rest of the world until. Yet, historical demographers have tried hard and often successfully to estimate population in the past, but their results have been neglected largely in the most common general historical databases. Our research project fills this gap in our knowledge. We have estimated the population series for all polities from 1800 to 1938 at historical and 1991 borders, using firsthand sources and country-specific literature. In this working paper we survey the previous estimates, list our sources, describe the methods of estimation in general and their application to each polity, sketch out main trends and discuss the reliability of our data, estimating their margin of error |
| Keywords: | World population historical dataset; Demographic transition |
| JEL: | I10 J11 J13 |
| Date: | 2025–01–31 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:45843 |
| By: | Emeline Bezin (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement); Bastien Chabé-Ferret (Middlesex University); David de la Croix (UCL - Université Catholique de Louvain = Catholic University of Louvain) |
| Abstract: | Fertility becomes a strategic choice for minorities when having a larger share of the population helps to increase power. If parents invest resources to educate their children, then raising fertility for strategic reasons might be at the cost of future human capital. We dispel this view using census data from several developing countries. We show that religious and ethnic minorities in Indonesia, China, and Malaysia tend to invest more in both education and fertility compared to larger groups. Solving for the Nash equilibrium of an appropriation game between two groups with education and fertility being prescribed as group-specific behavioral norms, we offer a rationale for the observed patterns provided that human capital is an important input to appropriation. |
| Keywords: | Human Capital, Nash equilibrium, Indonesia, Fertility, Quality-quantity trade-off, Minorities, Conflict, Population engineering |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04877862 |
| By: | Gilles Dufrénot (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France); Mathilde Esposito (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France); Eva Moreno-Galbis (Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, AMSE, Marseille, France) |
| Abstract: | Low fertility rates, mortality outstripping the birth rate and population contraction characterize a new demographic transition (the so-called "fifth stage"). This paper seeks to evaluate how this phenomenon has impacted the Japanese economic structure and overall productivity. We test two key mechanisms that have been at play since the mid-2000s: i) a growing complementarity between goods and services consumption, and ii) the substitution of older workers engaged in routine tasks with technological capital. According to Autor and Dorn’s (2013) model, this should promote the concentration of low-skilled workers in the service sector, and aggravate productivity gaps between industry and services. Using stochastic frontier models and EU-KLEMS data, we compute industry-by-industry TFP growth frontiers in order to check if theoretical predictions match with Japanese reality. |
| Keywords: | emographic transition, productivity, technological change, economic structure, Japan. |
| JEL: | J11 J14 O47 O53 |
| Date: | 2024–10 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aim:wpaimx:2426 |