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Beyond foraging: behavioral science and the future of institutional economics

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  • FIELD, ALEXANDER J.

Abstract

Institutions affect economic outcomes, but variation in them cannot be directly linked to environmental factors such as geography, climate, or technological availabilities. Game theoretic approaches, based as they typically are on foraging only assumptions, do not provide an adequate foundation for understanding the intervening role of politics and ideology; nor does the view that culture and institutions are entirely socially constructed. Understanding what institutions are and how they influence behavior requires an approach that is in part biological, focusing on cognitive and behavioral adaptations for social interaction favored in the past by group selection. These adaptations, along with their effects on canalizing social learning, help to explain uniformities in political and social order, and are the bedrock upon which we build cultural and institutional variability.

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  • Field, Alexander J., 2007. "Beyond foraging: behavioral science and the future of institutional economics," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(3), pages 265-291, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jinsec:v:3:y:2007:i:03:p:265-291_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Alexander J. Field, 2014. "Schelling, von Neumann, and the Event that Didn’t Occur," Games, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-37, February.
    2. Edward L. Glaeser & David I. Laibson & José A. Scheinkman & Christine L. Soutter, 2000. "Measuring Trust," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 811-846.
      • Glaeser, Edward Ludwig & Laibson, David I. & Scheinkman, Jose A. & Soutter, Christine L., 2000. "Measuring Trust," Scholarly Articles 4481497, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    3. Sophia du Plessis & Ada Jansen & Krige Siebrits, 2019. "The limits of laws: traffic law enforcement in South Africa," Working Papers 08/2019, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics, revised 2019.

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