Rules, preferences and evolution from the family angle

Alessandro Cigno

CHILD Working Papers Series from Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature concerning the evolution of cultural traits in general and preferences in particular, and the emergence and persistence of rules or norms, from a family per- spective. In models where each person is e¤ectively the clone of an existing one (either a parent or anyone else), there may be evolution only in the demographic sense that the share of the population who hold a certain trait increases or decreases. Evo- lution in the strict sense of new traits making their appearance occurs in models where the trait characterizing any given mem- ber of any given generation is a combination of traits drawn at random from those represented in the previous generation. Pref- erences may be altruistic or non-altruistic, but individuals may behave as if they were altruistic even if they are not, because a rule or norm may make it in their interest to do so. Evolutionary stability and renegotiation proofness play analogous roles, the former by selecting altruistic preferences, and the latter by se- lecting cooperation-inducing rules. The existence of population groups recognizable by outward characteristics like ethnicity or religious practice may convey useful information regarding im- perfectly observable traits of direct interest to individuals, but it may also lead individuals to judge others by their group member- ship rather than by their unobservable individual qualities, and thus to see them as possible foes.

Keywords: Evolution; preferences; rules; socialization; matching; hold-up problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-isf
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Related works:
Working Paper: Rules, Preferences and Evolution from the Family Angle (2021)
Working Paper: Rules, Preferences and Evolution from the Family Angle (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cca:wchild:92

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