Links this week:
- The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization has a special issue out “Evolution as a General Theoretical Framework for Economics and Public Policy”. You can also access the papers through the Evolution Institute website and there is a series of summary articles in Evolution: This View of Life. Many look worth a read, and I’ll post about them over coming weeks/months.
- David Sloan Wilson (one of the editors and authors in the JEBO special issue above) has an article in aeon magazine critiquing economics from an evolutionary angle.
- Also in aeon magazine, an interesting take on obesity (HT: John Hawks). It’s fair to say that a simple “calorie in-calorie out” analysis doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. (But I don’t buy the bit about lab animal food staying the same).
- Another article from Evolution: This View of Life that is worth a look – Daniel Hruschka on collectivism versus individualism.
- Support for Gregory Clark’s argument that analysis of social mobility over a single generation overestimates its extent – a child’s socioeconomic position is determined by their grandparents, not just their parents (blog post on this article to come soon).
- Britain is undergoing a baby boom. I expect this will be a common developed country observation over the next decade.