Economic Darwinism

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

We define an evolutionary process of “economic Darwinism” for playing the field, symmetric games. The process captures two forces. One is “economic selection”: if current behavior leads to payoff differences, behavior yielding lowest payoff has strictly positive probability of being replaced by an arbitrary behavior. The other is “mutation”: any behavior has at any point in time a strictly positive, very small probability of shifting to an arbitrary behavior. We show that behavior observed frequently is in accordance with “evolutionary equilibrium”, a static equilibrium concept suggested in the literature. Using this result, we demonstrate that generally under positive (negative) externalities, economic Darwinism implies even more under- (over-)activity than does Nash equilibrium.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftTheory and Decision
Vol/bind70
Udgave nummer3
Sider (fra-til)385-398
Antal sider14
ISSN0040-5833
DOI
StatusUdgivet - apr. 2011

    Forskningsområder

  • Det Samfundsvidenskabelige Fakultet - evolutionary game theory, Darwinian evolution, economic selection, mutation, evolutionary equilibrium, stochastic stability

ID: 17214741