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Kinship, Incentives and Evolution

Author

Listed:
  • Ingela Alger

    (Carleton University)

  • Jörgen Weibull

    (SSE - Department of Economics - SSE - Stockholm School of Economics, X-DEP-ECO - Département d'Économie de l'École Polytechnique - X - École polytechnique)

Abstract

We analyze how family ties affect incentives, with focus on the strategic interaction between two mutually altruistic siblings. The siblings exert effort to produce output under uncertainty, and they may transfer output to each other. With equally altruistic siblings, their equilibrium effort is non-monotonic in the common degree of altruism, and it depends on the harshness of the environment. We define a notion of local evolutionary stability of degrees of sibling altruism, and show that this degree is lower than the kinship-relatedness factor. Numerical simulations show how family ties vary with the environment, and how this a¤ects economic outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Ingela Alger & Jörgen Weibull, 2009. "Kinship, Incentives and Evolution," Working Papers hal-00435431, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00435431
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00435431
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    altruism; family ties; free-riding; empathy; Hamilton's rule; evolutionary stability.; evolutionary stability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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