Remarks on Economics as Evolutionary Science

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Remarks on Economics as Evolutionary Science

• Ted Bergstrom, UCSB

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Prelude Economics as Evolutionary Science

• Economists have been unwitting creationists
• Theory takes axiomatic approach to description of
  human nature
• Axioms are typically quite arbitrarily selected
• Platonic rationality
• Behavioral this or that

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Will Darwinian thinking change economics?

• I am betting that it will and that this will
  engage economics much more deeply in the other
  biological and social sciences.

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Central Features of Evolutionary Economics

• Evolution of Fundamental Preferences
• Selfishness vs altruism
• Concern for relatives
• Time Preference
• Attitudes toward risk
• Evolution of rationality itself
• Evolution of institutions and beliefscultural
  evolution
• Group selection versus individual selection

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Evolutionary Economics of the Family

• There is selection for behavior that maximizes
  reproductive success.
• Broadly true whether transmission is genetic or
  cultural
• Marital institutions
• Inheritance and support of the elderly
• Fraternal cooperation, sibling rivalry,
  parent-offspring conflict