Economics in a Family Way

Ted Bergstrom (tedb@econ.ucsb.edu)

ELSE working papers from ESRC Centre on Economics Learning and Social Evolution

Abstract: This paper argues that the economics of the family can be much enriched by incorporating recent developments in evolutionary biology, animal behavior studies, cultural evolution, anthropology, and game theory. Evolutionary foundations of sympathy between relatives are explored. Applications of the theory of cultural evolution to the demographic transition and to wealth transfers between generations are investigated. The economics of marital institutions such as polygyny, polyandry, and matriarchy are discussed, as well as recent work by economists on non-monogamous mating arrangements in our own society. Applications of recent developments in non-cooperative bargaining theory and matching theory to the theory of marriage are presented.

References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (102)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Economics in a Family Way (1996)
Working Paper: Economics in a Family Way (1996)
Working Paper: Economics of a Family Way (1995)
Working Paper: Economic in a Family Way (1995)
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:els:esrcls:018

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ELSE working papers from ESRC Centre on Economics Learning and Social Evolution Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by s. malkani (s.malkani@ucl.ac.uk this e-mail address is bad, please contact repec@repec.org).