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14 results

The Evolutionary Foundations of Preferences
  • Arthur J. Robson, Larry Samuelson
  • Coming soon
  • Expected online publication date:
    September 2026
    Print publication:
    30 September 2026
  • Preferences are the point of departure for economic analysis. Despite myriad experiments designed to characterize preferences, no consensus has been reached. In The Evolutionary Foundation of Preferences, Arthur J. Robson and Larry Samuelson examine how economic preferences might be shaped by biological evolution. They theorize that each of us is descended from a line of ancestors who were able to survive and reproduce, and they analyze how this may have affected modern preferences. Drawing on demographic models, they explain how different preferences induce different behaviors which lead to different growth rates among respective subpopulations. People whose preferences induce the highest growth rate eventually comprise the overwhelming proportion of the population. Examining neuroscientific evidence that points to a cardinal, or hedonic, interpretation of utility, the authors discuss the implications of these interpretations and the challenges raised for welfare economics.

Advances in Economics and Econometrics
  • Eleventh World Congress
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Bo Honoré, Ariel Pakes, Monika Piazzesi, Larry Samuelson
  • Published online:
    27 October 2017
    Print publication:
    02 November 2017
  • This is the second of two volumes containing papers and commentaries presented at the Eleventh World Congress of the Econometric Society, held in Montreal, Canada in August 2015. These papers provide state-of-the-art guides to the most important recent research in economics. The book includes surveys and interpretations of key developments in economics and econometrics, and discussion of future directions for a wide variety of topics, covering both theory and application. These volumes provide a unique, accessible survey of progress on the discipline, written by leading specialists in their fields. The second volume addresses topics such as big data, macroeconomics, financial markets, and partially identified models.

Advances in Economics and Econometrics
  • Eleventh World Congress
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Bo Honoré, Ariel Pakes, Monika Piazzesi, Larry Samuelson
  • Published online:
    27 October 2017
    Print publication:
    02 November 2017
  • This is the first of two volumes containing papers and commentaries presented at the Eleventh World Congress of the Econometric Society, held in Montreal, Canada in August 2015. These papers provide state-of-the-art guides to the most important recent research in economics. The book includes surveys and interpretations of key developments in economics and econometrics, and discussion of future directions for a wide variety of topics, covering both theory and application. These volumes provide a unique, accessible survey of progress on the discipline, written by leading specialists in their fields. The first volume includes theoretical and applied papers addressing topics such as dynamic mechanism design, agency problems, and networks.

  • 4 - The Economics of Relationships

  • Edited by Richard Blundell, University College London, Whitney K. Newey, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Torsten Persson, Stockholms Universitet
  • Book:
    Advances in Economics and Econometrics
    Published online:
    05 January 2013
    Print publication:
    14 August 2006, pp 136-185

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    Relationships: Two Illustrations

    Each year, about $60 billion dollars worth of diamond jewelry is sold worldwide. Over the course of its journey from mine to warbrobe, a diamond typically passes through numerous intermediaries in search of just the right buyer. Because diamonds are easy to conceal, difficult to distinguish, portable and valuable, there are many opportunities to cheat on diamond deals. One would accordingly expect them to be handled with the utmost care. To the contrary, virtually no care at all is taken:

    Once gems leave the vault-like workshops, they do so in folded sheets of tissue paper, in the pockets of messengers, dealers and traders. They are not logged in and out … or marked to prevent substitution. They are protected from embezzling only by the character of those who transport. … On that slender record, gems worth thousands of dollars traverse the street and are distributed among buyers from Bombay to Buenos Aries, Pawtucket and Dubuque.

    In Puccini's opera Gianni Schicchi, the deceased Buoso Donati has left his estate to a monastery, much to the consternation of his family. Before others learn of the death, Donati's relatives hire the actor Gianni Schicchi, who is to impersonate Buoso Donati, write a new will leaving the fortune to the family, and then feign death. Anxious that Schicchi do nothing to expose the plot, the family explains that there are severe penalties for tampering with a will and that any misstep puts Schicchi at risk.