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on Evolutionary Economics |
| By: | David Gill; Zachary Knepper; Victoria Prowse; Junya Zhou |
| Abstract: | We explore the influence of cognitive ability and judgment on strategic behavior in the beauty contest game. Using the level-k model of bounded rationality, cognitive ability and judgment both predict higher level strategic thinking. However, individuals with better judgment choose the Nash equilibrium action less frequently, and we uncover a novel dynamic mechanism that sheds light on this pattern. Taken together, our results indicate that fluid (i.e., analytical) intelligence is a primary driver of strategic level-k thinking, while facets of judgment that are distinct from fluid intelligence drive the lower inclination of high judgment individuals to choose the equilibrium action. |
| Keywords: | cognitive ability; judgment; fluid intelligence; matrix reasoning; beauty contest; strategic sophistication; level-k; experiment; game theory |
| JEL: | C92 C72 D91 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pur:prukra:1337&r=evo |
| By: | Abhinash Borah (Ashoka University); Raghvi Garg (Ashoka University) |
| Abstract: | As is well-known, choices of a decision maker (DM) who attempts self-control in the face of temptation may exhibit menu effects and “non-standard†patterns. Existing models can accommodate some of these patterns but not others; e.g., they can explain self-control undermining menu effects, but not self-control enhancing ones. We introduce a model of self-control with the goal of better understanding and accounting for such effects. The basic idea underlying our model is that the DM experiences a psychological cost if she succumbs to temptation and chooses in a manner that is totally antithetical to her commitment preferences. To mitigate such costs, in any menu, her expression of self-control involves, first, eliminating a subset of alternatives that are worst according to her commitment preferences, with the elimination process being reference-dependent. Then, amongst the remaining alternatives, she chooses the best one according to her temptation preferences. Besides studying menu effects, we characterize the model behaviorally based on a novel axiom called WARP with norms. We also show that the model is well-identified. |
| Keywords: | self control; temptation; normative elimination; reference dependence; menu effects |
| Date: | 2022–08–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:83&r=evo |
| By: | Redigonda, Margherita |
| Abstract: | The absence of a recognized definition of complexity makes very difficult to study it. This paper attempts to provide a definition of complexity following the insight expressed by Anderson in the 1972 article "More is Different" in an anti-reductionist perspective and recognizing the difference between the idea of complexity and the mathematical methods historically used for the study of complex systems. The definition provided allows for the recognition of complexity as a meta-theory rather than as a scientific theory, describing its characteristics. Next, the relationship between complexity and economics is explored from a historical and methodological perspective, recognizing three different archetypes of the relationship (neo-empirical, post-neoclassical, meta-theoretical). Finally, what social norms hinder or would facilitate the adoption of complexity meta-theory in scientific practice are described. |
| Date: | 2023–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:hnvzx&r=evo |
| By: | Redigonda, Margherita |
| Abstract: | This paper has two aims: to explore the suitability of computational tools in order to get a description of long-term evolution of mainstream economics and to test the "mainstream pluralism" hypothesis. A topic model is developed using full-text from papers published in a sample of top economics journals and the hierarchical Stochastic Block Model algorithm. The model is able to replicate many qualitative facts about the history of mainstream economics. Finally, the reason of the failure to test for the "mainstream pluralism" hypothesis are discussed. |
| Date: | 2023–12–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:3rcdn&r=evo |
| By: | Matteo M. Marini (Department of Public Economics and Masaryk University Experimental Economics Laboratory, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic); Giulia Ulivieri (Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena, Siena, Italy) |
| Abstract: | This manuscript is a methodological work on the state of research using meta-analytic procedures in Economic Psychology, with a focus on the investigation of cross-cultural differences. We review published meta-analyses and introduce a new classification thereof by data source, describing how the different categories relate to the study of cross-cultural differences. We also discuss related opportunities and challenges, proposing a sustainable methodological approach that is then implemented in three case studies where we re-analyze data from published meta-analyses. In doing so, the relevance of culture as a determinant is explored by relating country-level cultural indicators to experimental measures of risk aversion, tax compliance, and prosocial behavior, respectively. It turns out that, after we control for country-level cultural heterogeneity and economic development, country-level individualism predicts these economic outcomes. We discuss possible interpretations of our findings. |
| Keywords: | meta-analysis, individualism, fractionalization, Multiple Price List, Tax Evasion Game, Dictator Game |
| JEL: | C90 Z10 |
| Date: | 2024–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mub:wpaper:2024-01&r=evo |
| By: | Hadi Hosseini |
| Abstract: | Fairness is one of the most desirable societal principles in collective decision-making. It has been extensively studied in the past decades for its axiomatic properties and has received substantial attention from the multiagent systems community in recent years for its theoretical and computational aspects in algorithmic decision-making. However, these studies are often not sufficiently rich to capture the intricacies of human perception of fairness in the ambivalent nature of the real-world problems. We argue that not only fair solutions should be deemed desirable by social planners (designers), but they should be governed by human and societal cognition, consider perceived outcomes based on human judgement, and be verifiable. We discuss how achieving this goal requires a broad transdisciplinary approach ranging from computing and AI to behavioral economics and human-AI interaction. In doing so, we identify shortcomings and long-term challenges of the current literature of fair division, describe recent efforts in addressing them, and more importantly, highlight a series of open research directions. |
| Date: | 2023–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2312.14402&r=evo |
| By: | Ashwini Deshpande (Ashoka University); Rajesh Ramachandran (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | India is home to nearly a third of all world’s stunted children with a prevalence rate of 38.6 percent. A comparison by social groups reveals sharp intergroup disparities, with the upper caste (UC) Hindu children being 57 percent less likely to be stunted compared to Dalit or Scheduled Caste (SC) children. We explore the role of discrimination in shaping disparities in stunting rates between the socioeconomically dominant UCs and the stigmatized SCs. We show that districts with high prevalence of the illegal but widely pervasive stigmatising practice of untouchability have higher rates of stunting among SC children. To show how discriminatory social norms adversely affect early childhood development for stigmatised and marginalised groups, we exploit the fact that the historical geographical span of Hinduism was bounded to the south by the Vindhya mountain range. We compare how the heights and stunting rates of the UC-Hindu and SC children vary within the same state between those living within 100km to the north and south of the Vindhya range using a difference-in-differences (DID) estimator. The DID estimator shows that there are no differences in child height and stunting rates for UC-Hindu children living to the north and south of the Vindhya range. In contrast, the SC children living to the south of the Vindhya range are seen to have 40 percent lower levels of stunting. To illustrate channels, we document disparities across the north and south of the Vindhya range in provision of prenatal and antenatal services for SC mothers, education and health outcomes of SC mothers, as well as disparities in the rates of vaccinations of SC children. |
| Keywords: | India; Discrimination; caste; stunting; untouchability |
| Date: | 2022–10–26 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ash:wpaper:87&r=evo |