2ND DRAFT
Econ 312 Evolutionary Economics
Syllabus
Donald Cox
Fall 2015
Office: 21 Campanella Way, Room 331
Phone: 552-3677
Office Hours: Thursdays, 3:00-4:30 and by appointment
The main idea of this course is the prospect that our preferences could be shaped by
evolution. Armed with this idea, we can address many questions. Why do men tend to make
riskier investments than women? Why are people impatient? What explains novelty
seeking, habits, and addictions? Where do the preferences that govern parent-child
relationships come from? We will apply evolutionary thought to such diverse topics as:
violence; adolescent risk taking; sexual behavior; mating preferences; marriage and divorce;
rearing and investing in children; extended families; trade and specialization; cooperation
and conflict; cults and gangs; religion; interactions between genetic and cultural forces;
social learning, including fads, fashion and imitative and herd behavior; behavioral finance;
concerns for relative status; civic life; warfare and aggression; political revolutions and the
psychology of cooperation, guilt, shame, spite and revenge.
Book:
The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of
Evolutionary Psychology, paperback reprint edition, by Robert Wright (Vintage
Books, 1995).
Prerequisites: Microeconomic Theory (Econ 201 or 401) and Econometrics.
Grading:
The course grade is based on the following:
Assignments (5)
Class Participation
Research Paper (due December 8, 3:00 p.m.)
Final Exam (December 12, 9:00 a.m.)
Reading:
35 percent
10 percent
35 percent
20 percent
This class is reading intensive. But unlike most economics texts, the
required book contains mostly verbal arguments rather than equations and
graphs. But some of the articles contain advanced material, much of which
can be skipped. The detailed reading schedule below explains when to do
the reading and how to approach the material.
Class Meetings: Classes will start right on time. Students should arrive at least 3
minutes early so we can begin (and end) on time.
2ND DRAFT
Topics and Readings
Sept 1-3
Reading:
Genes and Evolution
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, chapter 2. This is a short chapter that contains
the ideas discussed in class. You should read through it right away, to make sure you
understand the “replicator” principle.
Start The Moral Animal.
Sept 8-10
Reading:
Evolutionary Psychology
Robert Wright, The Moral Animal. This book is best read right at the beginning,
pretty much all at once. It provides the foundation for the evolutionary theory that we will
refer to throughout the course. The use of Darwin’s life as a case study is sort of clever but
you can skim those chapters.
Sept 15-17
Reading:
Mating
These papers address gender differences in preferences for a mate. Such preferences can
have economic implications—they might even explain China’s savings glut.
Buss, David M. 1989. “Sex Differences in Human Mate Preferences: Evolutionary
Hypotheses Tested in 37 Cultures.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12(1): 1–
49.
Clark, Russell D., and Elaine Hatfield. 1989. “Gender Differences in Receptivity to
Sexual Offers.” Journal of Psychology and Human Sexuality, 2(1): 39–45.
Fisman, Raymond, Sheena S. Iyengar, Emir Kamenica, and Itamar Simonson. 2006.
“Gender Differences in Mate Selection: Evidence from a Speed Dating
Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics, May, 121(2): 673–97.
Gunter J. Hitsch, Ali Hortaçsu, and Dan Ariely. “What makes you click?—Mate
preferences in online dating.” Quantitative Marketing and Economics (2010)
8:393–427.
Sept 22-24
Reading:
Parents and Offspring
Which family members can you count on the most to help you? Do you care as much about
your grandparents as they do about you?
Duflo, Esther C. 2003. “Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old Age Pensions and
Intra-household Allocation in South Africa.” World Bank Economic Review,
17(1): 1–25.
2
2ND DRAFT
Donald Cox. “Biological Basics and the Economics of the Family.” Journal of
Economic Perspectives, Spring 2007: 91–108.
Sept 29-Oct 1
Reading:
Geography and History
Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel is one of the most insightful books ever written. The
most definitive argument against “biological determinism.” One of the main points: genetic
influences act in concert with environmental influences; they can’t be analyzed in a vacuum.
William H. McNeill, “History Upside Down,” New York Review of Books, May 15,
1997. (A review of Guns, Germs and Steel).
Jeffrey D. Sachs, Andrew D. Mellinger and John L. Gallup The Geography of
Poverty and Wealth, Scientific American, March 2001, pp. 71-74.
Oct 6-8
Reading:
Family Transfers
This section uses the material from The Moral Animal, chapter 7. In addition, there are four
articles related to this section. Again, the rule for any article marked with the (*) is to read
the words and skip the equations.
Gary Becker, “A Theory of Social Interactions.” Journal of Political Economy
(November/December 1974). An economic theory of altruism.
*Donald Cox, “Motives for Private Income Transfers.” Journal of Political Economy
(June 1987). Why altruism may not be the whole story behind parental money transfers to
children.
Francis Bloch and Vijayendra Rao, “Terror as a Bargaining Instrument: A Case Study
of Dowry Violence in Rural India,” American Economic Review (September
2002). There’s more than just altruism or exchange in family relationships…there’s
extortion too.
Oct 13-15
Cooperation and Conflict among Nonrelatives
VI. Ways that Non-relatives Cooperate and Ways They Fight
Reading:
Can having a hair-trigger temper actually facilitate rather than discourage trade? How
about a guilty conscience? The term “emotion” often implies being out of control and
irrational. But, as the authors of these papers argue, maybe emotions play a “smart” role in
the grand scheme of things, and complement rather than work against, our rational sides.
*Robert Frank, “If Homo Economicus Could Choose His Own Utility Function,
Would He Want One with a Conscience?” American Economic Review
(January 1987). This article contains a lot of ideas that will be useful for understanding
cooperative interaction among non-relatives.
3
2ND DRAFT
Jack Hirshleifer. “On the Emotions as Guarantors of Threats and Promises.” In John
Dupre, ed., The Latest on the Best: Essays in Evolution and Optimality.
(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987). How emotions might facilitate trade.
Oct 20-22
Reading:
Language and Social Capital
How many people can you keep track of? A jumping off point for thinking about a core
concept in economics, the division of labor.
*Edward P. Lazear, “Culture and Language.” Journal of Political Economy
(December supplement 1999). When to assimilate and when not to.
Robin I. M. Dunbar and Susanne Shultz, “Evolution in the Social Brain.” Science
(September 2007).
Oct 27-29
Reading:
Clubs, Cults and Gangs
What do Hare Krishnas, academic economists, Hell’s Angels, and Israeli Ultra-Orthodox
Jews all have in common? Perhaps more than you might have guessed.
*Laurence R. Iannaccone, “Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults,
Communes, and Other Collectives.” Journal of Political Economy (April
1992). Why are there cults? What keeps them together? This paper contains a new way to
think about the behavior of academic economists, religious fundamentalists, motorcycle club
members, and terrorists, among others.
Laurence R. Iannaccone and Eli Berman, Religious Extremism: “The Good, the Bad, and the
Deadly,” Public Choice (Jul., 2006): 109-129
Nov 3-5
Reading:
Fads, Fashion and Conformity
How many beliefs do you currently hold right now that are completely false? Plus, how your
friends might drag you down.
*Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer, and Ivo Welch, “Learning from the
Behavior of Others: Conformity, Fads, and Informational Cascades.” The
Journal of Economic Perspectives (Fall 1998). An analysis of how ideas can spread
by imitative behavior.
George A. Akerlof, “Social Distance and Social Decisions.” Econometrica (January
1997). The economic implications of wanting to be close to your neighborhood friends.
4
2ND DRAFT
Nov 10
Reading:
Revolutions
This paper contains clues as to why pedophilia in the Catholic Church went unreported for so
long, and also why the scandal broke so suddenly.
Timur Kuran, “The East European Revolution of 1989: Is it Surprising that We Were
Surprised?” American Economic Review (May 1991).
Nov 12
Reading:
Status
A short item having to do with status and frames of reference.
Robert H. Frank, “Frames of Reference and the Quality of Life.” American Economic
Review (May 1989). How happy you are probably depends on more than just goods and
services. It also might depend on how you are doing relative to others or relative to how you
were doing before.
Nov 24
Reading:
Habits
Why the past matters for today’s consumption.
Becker, Gary S. “Habits, Addictions and Traditions.” Kyklos (No. 3
1992).
Dec 1
Reading:
Impatience
Why do people procrastinate? Is it because of a quirk in their utility functions, or because of
their upbringing?
Craig Lambert, “The Marketplace of Perceptions,” Harvard Magazine (Mar-Apr
2006). A discussion limited to the research of Harvard economists, but nonetheless an
engaging introduction to the psychology and economics of time discounting.
Dec 3
Reading:
Group Selection
How ‘groupish’ are humans?
* Theodore Bergstrom, “Evolution of Social Behavior: Individual and Group
Selection.” Journal of Economic Perspectives (Spring 2002).
Dec 8
Last Day of Class
5
2ND DRAFT
Assignments
September
September
8 Assignment)1
10
September
September
15
17
September
September
22 Assignment)2
24
September
October
29
1
Assgn)1)Due
Paper)Topic)Due
Topics)Handed)Back
6 Assgn)2)Due
8 Assignment)3
October
October
13
15
October
October
20
22 Assignment)4
October
October
27
29
November
November
Other.Key.Dates
1
3
September
September
October
October
Research.Paper
Assgn)3)Due
1st)Progress)Report)Due
Due
3
5 Assignment)5
November
November
10
12
November
November
17
19
November
24
December
December
1
3
December
8
December
12
2nd)Progress)Report)Due
Assgn)5)Due
Research)Paper)Due
Final)Exam
6
2ND DRAFT
-
7