The Evolutionary Foundations of Preferences
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
410 pages
978-1-009-84339-3 (ISBN)
Description
Preferences are the point of departure for economic analysis. Despite myriad experiments designed to characterize preferences, no consensus has been reached. In The Evolutionary Foundation of Preferences Arthur J. Robson and Larry Samuelson examine how economic preferences might be shaped by biological evolution. Theorizing that each of us is descended from a line of ancestors who were able to survive and to reproduce, they analyze how this fact may have affected modern preferences. Drawing on demographic models, they explain how different preferences induce different behaviors which lead toe different growth rates among respective subpopulations. People characterized by inducing the highest growth rate eventually comprise the overwhelming proportion of the population. Examining neuroscientific evidence that points to a cardinal or hedonic interpretation of utility, the authors discuss the implications of these interpretations and the challenges raised for welfare economics.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-84339-3 (9781009843393)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Arthur J. Robson | Larry Samuelson
The Evolutionary Foundations of Preferences
Book
approx. 09/2026
Cambridge University Press
€147.50
Not yet published
Persons
Arthur J Robson is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Simon Fraser University. He has been a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, at the Becker-Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago, and at Princeton University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Fellow of the Econometric Society, and has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Larry Samuelson is A. Douglas Melamed Professor of Economics at Yale University. He works in economic theory, with a particular interest in the evolutionary foundations of economic behavior. He has served as a co-editor of Econometrica, the American Economic Review, and the American Economic Review: Insights. He has served as president of the Game Theory Society and president of the Econometric Society.
Author
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
Yale University, Connecticut
Content
1. Introduction; 2. Evolution of utility functions; 3. Impatience; 4. Discounting quality and quantity; 5. Risk; 6. Risk in age-structured populations; 7. Discounting and risk; 8. Adaptive utility; 9. The biotechnology of adaptive utility; 10. Engines of adaptation; 11. Hedonic utility; 12. Conclusions; Index.