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The Promises of a Naturalistic Approach: How Cultural Evolution Theory Can Inform (Evolutionary) Economics

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  • Christian Cordes

Abstract

Humans are an ecologically extremely successful species. Underlying this achievement is our evolved unique adaptation for culture. Moreover, humans' cultural capacity initiated a process of gene-culture coevolution that lead to a plethora of behavioral and cognitive dispositions on which cultural adaptation to challenging environments via cultural evolution rests. These characteristics of human cognition are highly relevant to any discipline dealing with human behavior. This article presents these outcomes of human phylogeny and discusses this naturalistic perspective's implications for (evolutionary) economics. Moreover, some fruitful applications of cultural evolution theory to the explanation of economic phenomena are provided.

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  • Christian Cordes, 2019. "The Promises of a Naturalistic Approach: How Cultural Evolution Theory Can Inform (Evolutionary) Economics," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 1901, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:atv:wpaper:1901
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/208
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    Cited by:

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    2. Nathalie Lazaric & Pasquale Tridico & Sebastiano Fadda, 2020. "Governing structural changes and sustainability through (new) institutions and organizations," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(5), pages 1267-1273, November.
    3. Joshua Henkel, 2022. "Economics & Biology: The whole is something besides the parts – a complementary approach to a bioeconomy," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2210, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    4. Chai, Andreas & Stepanova, Elena & Moneta, Alessio, 2023. "Quantifying expenditure hierarchies and the expansion of global consumption diversity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 860-886.
    5. Braganza, Oliver, 2022. "Market paternalism: Do people really want to be nudged towards consumption?," ifso working paper series 23, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    6. Christophe Feder & Beniamino Callegari & David Collste, 2024. "The system dynamics approach for a global evolutionary analysis of sustainable development," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 351-374, April.
    7. Christian Cordes & Joshua Henkel, 2022. "Enhanced "Green Nudging": Tapping the Channels of Cultural Transmission," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2208, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic theory development; Cultural evolution theory; Learning mechanisms; Human behavior in economic contexts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines

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