This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. Journal of Economic Literature
  4. March 2001
  5. The Biological Basis of Economic Behavior

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

The Biological Basis of Economic Behavior

  • Arthur J. Robson
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 39, no. 1, March 2001
(pp. 11–33)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This paper first considers the implications of biological evolution for economic preferences. It analyzes why utility functions evolved, considers evidence that utility is both hedonic and adaptive, and suggests why such adaptation might have evolved. Time preference and attitudes to risk are treated--in particular, whether the former is exponential and the latter are selfish. Arguments for another form of interdependence--a concern with status--are treated. The paper then considers the evolution of rationality. One hypothesis examined is that human intelligence and longevity were forged by hunter-gatherer economies; another is that intelligence was spurred by competitive social interactions.

Citation

Robson, Arthur, J. 2001. "The Biological Basis of Economic Behavior." Journal of Economic Literature, 39 (1): 11–33. DOI: 10.1257/jel.39.1.11

JEL Classification

  • B52 Current Heterodox Approaches: Institutional; Evolutionary
  • D00 Microeconomics: General