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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | Ali Moghaddasi Kelishomi (Loughborough University); Daniel Sgroi (University of Warwick); Andis Sofianos (Durham University) |
| Abstract: | How does rationality shape cooperation in strategic settings? We study this question in a laboratory experiment that links individual rationality, measured by consistency with the generalized axiom of revealed preference, to behaviour in an indefinitely repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma. Participants are grouped by pre-measured rationality before interacting repeatedly. We find that higher rationality substantially increases cooperation and payoffs. This effect operates through a novel mechanism: more rational individuals make fewer implementation errors when executing their intended strategies, thereby sustaining cooperative outcomes. By contrast, higher cognitive ability also promotes cooperation and higher payoffs, but through a distinct channel—reducing strategic errors in responding optimally to others’ actions. Our results provide the first experimental evidence linking rationality to cooperation via decision-making errors, and clarify the distinct roles of rationality and intelligence in shaping strategic behaviour. Together, the findings offer a unified account of how cognitive constraints affect cooperation in repeated games |
| Keywords: | Repeated Prisoners Dilemma, Cooperation, Rationality, Intelligence, Learning, Strategy Errors JEL codes: C73, C91, C92, D83 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wrk:warwec:1630 |
| By: | Le Breton, Michel; Konishi, H.; Weber, Shlomo |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we define additive dyadic social interactions games (ADG), in which each player cares not only about the selected action, but also about interactions with other players, especially those who choose the same action. This class of games includes alliance formation games, network games, and discrete choice problems with network externalities. While it is known that games in the ADG class admit a pure strategy Nash equilibrium that is a maximizer of the game ís potential, the potential approach does not always apply if all coalitional deviations are allowed. In this paper, we systematically identify both restrictions on possible coalitional deviations to preserve the potential function and types of equilibria that ensures their existence for various subclasses of ADG or its subclasses, extending the approach taken by Le Breton et al. (2021). An additional avenue of our results is the examination of games with outside option which expand the set of alternatives. Although this modification complicates the analysis significantly, positive results are obtained with different class of restrictions. |
| Date: | 2026–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:tse:wpaper:132076 |
| By: | Federico, Giovanni; Tena Junguito, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Humans have been migrating since the out-of-Africa dispersal, roughly 300, 000 years ago, but the nineteenth century marked a major leap forward. For the first time in history, millions of people voluntarily migrated over long distances, from Europe to the Americas and Oceania, and from India and China to Southeast Asia. Yet we still know too little about these flows. The recent literature has made great progress in analyzing migrants' motivations and the microeconomic impact of their arrival, but the conventional wisdom still relies on the data compiled by Ferenczi and Willcox (1929) on gross migrations in the Atlantic economy. In this paper, we reconstruct new worldwide series for total (gross) and net migration, including inter-Asian and, partially, inter-European flows from 1800 to 1938. We estimate that more than 150 million people, about 10% of the world population, migrated, but half of them returned home. They accounted for between a sixth and a tenth of the workforce in the Americas and from a fifth to three-quarters in Australia and New Zealand. We also estimate the long-run effect of migrations on the distribution of the world population. |
| Keywords: | International migration; Global migration; Historical demography; Return migration; Labor mobility; Population dynamics; Economic history |
| JEL: | J61 N30 J11 F22 |
| Date: | 2026–09–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cte:whrepe:50842 |
| By: | Jerônimo Muniz (Federal Unversity of Minas Gerais) |
| Abstract: | Reliable demographic analysis in settings with incomplete or imperfect data requires flexible and transparent estimation and projection tools. This paper presents an integrated suite of Stata-based methods for estimating mortality and fertility and for projecting populations by age, sex, and additional characteristics. First, I revisit intercensal approaches to mortality estimation, including census-based, death distribution, and iterative methods, and introduce tools for constructing single-decrement life tables and estimating age-specific net migration using two population age distributions and intercensal deaths. Second, I describe an enhanced implementation of the own-children method for estimating age-specific fertility rates, providing graphical summaries of recent fertility patterns, weighted subgroup estimates, and a wide range of reproductive indicators derived from biological mother-child links. Third, I present a matrix-based projection framework for forecasting population dynamics under specified schedules of fertility, mortality, and migration, supporting one- and two-sex models as well as multistate classifications such as region, race, or health status. Empirical illustrations draw on census and register data from Vietnam, Brazil, and Sweden, demonstrating applicability across diverse demographic contexts. Together, these methods offer a coherent and extensible toolkit for demographic estimation and projection using standard data sources. |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boc:biep26:05 |
| By: | Jaadla, Hannaliis; Davenport, Romola |
| Abstract: | Using high-frequency historical data on mortality (weekly) and temperature (daily), we examine the puzzle of the late decline of infant diarrhoeal mortality in British and Irish cities. While mortality from other faecal–oral diseases began falling before the 1880s alongside investments in urban water supply and waste disposal, large summer epidemics of infant diarrhoea persisted until the 1910s. We analyse a large panel of towns spanning the period 1893–1930 to characterise the temperature-infant mortality nexus and to identify turning points in this relationship. Two-way fixed effects models reveal the roles of flush toilet provision, reductions in fly populations, and infant feeding practices in the decline of infant diarrhoeal mortality. Our findings indicate that preventing lethal summer epidemics among young children required coordinated improvements in both domestic and environmental hygiene. We suggest that these findings provide historical support for contemporary calls for ‘transformative WaSH’ programmes. |
| Date: | 2026–09–24 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:zb6dn_v1 |
| By: | Akren, Mehmet B.; Ertan, Arhan S.; Putterman, Louis G. |
| Abstract: | The regional distribution of world population underwent profound changes during the age of exploration and colonization, in which a handful of European powers colonized the better part of the remaining continents. One consequence is that many countries in the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, after sharp contractions of indigenous populations following exposure to Old World diseases, today have populations in which European or African descendants form majorities and speak predominantly European languages. Migration and in some cases colonization also altered population compositions in countries including South Africa, Cape Verde, Fiji and Singapore. And descendants of 'emigr'es came to outnumber those of "stayers" even for non-colonizing countries, including, e.g., Ireland and Lebanon. We identify major determinants of who settled where, during this era of colonialism and migration, demonstrating that both "natural" factors like availability and fertility of agricultural land and climate and disease prevalence, on the one hand, and power inequalities and cultural variables, on the other, explain the broad patterns of migration. |
| Abstract: | Die regionale Verteilung der Weltbevölkerung erfuhr im Zeitalter der Entdeckungen und der Kolonialisierung tiefgreifende Veränderungen, in dem eine Handvoll europäischer Mächte den größten Teil der übrigen Kontinente kolonisierten. Eine Folge davon ist, dass in vielen Ländern Amerikas, Australiens und Neuseelands - nach einem drastischen Rückgang der indigenen Bevölkerung infolge der Ansteckung mit Krankheiten aus der Alten Welt - heute die Nachfahren europäischer oder afrikanischer Einwanderer die Mehrheit bilden und überwiegend europäische Sprachen sprechen. Migration und in einigen Fällen auch Kolonisierung veränderten zudem die Bevölkerungszusammensetzung in Ländern wie Südafrika, Kap Verde, Fidschi und Singapur. Und selbst in Ländern, die keine Kolonialmächte waren - darunter beispielsweise Irland und der Libanon -, überstieg die Zahl der Nachkommen von Auswanderern schließlich die der "Daheimgebliebenen". Wir identifizieren die wichtigsten Determinanten dafür, wer sich in dieser Ära des Kolonialismus und der Migration wo niedergelassen hat, und zeigen, dass sowohl "natürliche" Faktoren wie die Verfügbarkeit und Fruchtbarkeit von Ackerland sowie das Klima und die Krankheitsprävalenz einerseits als auch Machtungleichheiten und kulturelle Variablen andererseits die allgemeinen Migrationsmuster erklären. |
| Keywords: | International Migration, Columbian Exchange, Historical Demography, Power Asymmetries, Colonialism, Disease, Land Endowments |
| JEL: | F22 N30 N50 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:rwirep:343572 |