The Evolutionary Processes for the Populations of Firms and Workers

Elvio Accinelli and Edgar J. Sánchez Carrera ()
Additional contact information
Edgar J. Sánchez Carrera: Department of Economics, University of Siena

Ensayos Revista de Economia, 2010, vol. XXIX, issue 1, 39-68

Abstract: This paper analyzes the cultural evolution of firms and workers. Following an imitation rule, each firm and worker decides whether to be innovative (or not) and skilled (or unskilled). We apply evolutionary game theory to find the system of replicator dynamics, and characterize the low-level and high-level equilibria as Evolutionarily Stable Strategies (ESS) “against the field.” Hence, we study how a persistent state of underdevelopment can arise in strategic environments in which players are imitative rather than rational maximizers. We show that when the current state of the economy is in the basin of attraction of the poverty trap, players should play against the field if they want to change their status quo. The threshold level to overcome the poverty trap can be lowered if there is an appropriate policy using income taxes, education costs and skill premia. Hence, we study the replicator dynamics with a subsidy and payoff taxation to overcome the poverty trap.

Keywords: Imitative behavior; conformism; poverty traps; skill premium; strategic complementarities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C79 D83 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economia.uanl.mx/revistaensayos/xxix/1/ ... ionary-processes.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ere:journl:v:xxix:y:2010:i:1:p:39-68

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this article

Ensayos Revista de Economia is currently edited by Edgar Mauricio Luna Domínguez

More articles in Ensayos Revista de Economia from Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Economia Avenida Lazaro Cardenas 4600 Ote., Fraccionamiento Residencial Las Torres, C.P. 64930. Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. México.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dora María Vega Facio ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).