Technological diffusion and preference learning in the world of Homo sustinens: The challenges for politics

Christian Cordes and Georg Schwesinger

Ecological Economics, 2014, vol. 97, issue C, 191-200

Abstract: This article relates agents' learning of a preference for a technology, competition of technologies, and their relative diffusion among potential adopters. Competitive interactions between two technologies are captured by an extended Lotka–Volterra model. To also incorporate preference learning on the part of potential adopters of these technologies, we combine it with a model of cultural learning based on role model, conformist, and hedonistic learning. Our theoretical analysis is illustrated by a concrete example: the competition between electric mobility and conventional forms of individual mobility. The model enables an evaluation of specific policy instruments as to the promotion of sustainable technology.

Keywords: Consumer behavior; Cultural evolution; Learning; Sustainability; Diffusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 D11 D83 Q01 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:97:y:2014:i:c:p:191-200

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.11.013

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