Evolution of the Family: Theory and Implications for Economics
Ingela Alger
(1, 2, 3, 4)
,
Donald Cox
(5)
Ingela Alger
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 742422
- IdHAL : ingela-alger
- ORCID : 0000-0003-2436-512X
- IdRef : 234173319
Résumé
Evolution of the Family: Theory and Implications for Economics
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et SociétéFormat du dépôt | Notice |
---|---|
Type de dépôt | Autre publication scientifique |
Titre |
en
Evolution of the Family: Theory and Implications for Economics
|
Résumé |
en
Evolution of the Family: Theory and Implications for Economics
|
Auteur(s) |
Ingela Alger
1, 2, 3, 4
, Donald Cox
5
1
CNRS -
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
( 441569 )
- France
2
UT Capitole -
Université Toulouse Capitole
( 81148 )
- 2 rue du Doyen-Gabriel-Marty - 31042 Toulouse Cedex 9
- France
3
IAST -
Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse
( 506116 )
- 1, esplanade de l'Université
31080 Toulouse Cedex 06
- France
4
TSE-R -
Toulouse School of Economics
( 1002422 )
- Manufacture de Tabacs, 21 allées de Brienne 31000 Toulouse
- France
5
BC -
Boston College
( 520220 )
- 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
- États-Unis
|
Langue du document |
Anglais
|
Vulgarisation |
Non
|
Date de publication |
2019-11-22
|
Description |
Summary
Which parent can be expected to be more altruistic toward their child, the mother or father? All else equal, can we expect older generation members to be more solicitous of younger family members or vice versa? Policy interventions often target recipients by demographic status: more money being put in the hands of mothers, say, or transfers of income from young to old via public pensions. Economics makes predictions about pecuniary incentives and behavior but tends to be agnostic about how, say, a post-menopausal grandmother might behave, just because she is a post-menopausal grandmother. Evolutionary theory fills this gap by analyzing how preferences of family members emerge from the Darwinian exigencies of “survive and reproduce.” Coin of the realm is so-called “inclusive fitness,” reproductive success of oneself plus that of relatives, weighted by closeness of the relationship. Appending basic biological traits onto considerations of inclusive fitness generates predictions about preferences of family members. A post-menopausal grandmother with a daughter just starting a family is predicted to care more about her daughter than the daughter cares about her, for example. Evolutionary theory predicts that mothers tend to be more altruistic toward children than fathers, and that close relatives would be inclined to provide more support to one another than distant relatives. An original case study is provided, which explains the puzzle of diverging marriage rates by education in terms of heterogeneity in preferences for commitment. Economists are justifiably loathe to invoke preferences to explain trends, since preference-based explanations can be concocted to explain just about anything. But the evolutionary approach does not permit just any invocation of preferences. The dictates of “survive and reproduce” sharply circumscribe the kinds of preference-related arguments that are admissible.
|
Commentaire |
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance
|
Type de la publication (spécifique HAL INRAE) |
-- non concerné --
|
Public visé |
Scientifique
|
Nombre de pages |
32 p.
|
Domaine(s) |
|
Éditeur commercial |
|
Commentaire(s) |
|
Mots-clés |
en
Family economics, Evolution, Hamilton’s rule, Biology, Marital outcomes
|
DOI | 10.1093/acrefore/9780190625979.013.439 |
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