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The Evolutionary Game of Poverty Traps

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  • Edgar Sanchez Carrera

Abstract

We study an evolutionary game in which the individual behavior of the economic agents can lead the economy either into a low-level or a high-level equilibrium. The model represents two asymmetric populations, “leaders and followers”, where in each round an economic agent of population 1 is paired with a member of population 2. Our evolutionary game is a signaling game in which only the leader has private information. The leader moves first; the follower observes the leader's action, but not the leader's type, before choosing her own action. We found the equilibria both as self-confirming and evolutionarily stable strategies. Furthermore, considering an imitative behavior of the followers, we show that to overcome the poverty trap there exists a threshold value equals to the ratio "education costs-efficiency wages" of the number of high-profile economic agents

Suggested Citation

  • Edgar Sanchez Carrera, 2009. "The Evolutionary Game of Poverty Traps," Department of Economics University of Siena 555, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:555
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    13. Durlauf, Steven N., 2004. "Neighborhood effects," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 50, pages 2173-2242, Elsevier.
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    Cited by:

    1. Joao Paulo A. de Souza & Leopoldo Gómez‐Ramírez, 2021. "Industrialization and skill acquisition in an evolutionary model of coordination failures," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 849-867, November.
    2. Edgar Villa & Andrés Salazar, 2013. "Poverty traps, economic inequality and incentives for delinquency," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, December.
    3. Barreira da Silva Rocha, André, 2013. "Evolutionary dynamics of nationalism and migration," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(15), pages 3183-3197.
    4. Saúl Mendoza-Palacios & Julen Berasaluce & Alfonso Mercado, 2021. "Industrialization and human resources training: an approach of policies coordination," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2021-01, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    5. Edgar Carrera, 2012. "Imitation and evolutionary stability of poverty traps," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Sanchez-Carrera Edgar J. & Travaglini Giuseppe & Ille Sebastian, 2021. "Macrodynamic Modeling of Innovation Equilibria and Traps," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 21(2), pages 659-694, June.
    7. Edgar J. Sánchez Carrera & Elena Gubar & Andrey F. Oleynik, 2019. "Network Structures and Poverty Traps," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 236-253, March.
    8. Edgar J. Sanchez Carrera, 2019. "Evolutionary dynamics of poverty traps," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 611-630, April.
    9. Mikhail Anufriev & Davide Radi & Fabio Tramontana, 2018. "Some reflections on past and future of nonlinear dynamics in economics and finance," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 41(2), pages 91-118, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Evolutionary games; imitation rule; poverty traps; replicator dynamics; signaling games; strategic complementarities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C70 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - General
    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • C73 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Stochastic and Dynamic Games; Evolutionary Games
    • I30 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General

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