Author: cogiddo

On economics and evolutionary theory (wonky)

~ cogiddo ~ Leave a comment

On my train ride to the office this morning, I saw this article by David Sloan Wilson, which is an update of Paul Krugman’s 1996 use of evolutionary biology to improve the methodology of economics. David Sloan Wilson’s post is an update on the developments in theory of evolution since then and their impact on Krugman’s assessment of how economics is, and should be, done. I highly recommend the Wilson article to anyone interested. In addition to being highly informative and well written, it has a good collection of citations worth following up.

Economic inequality, MLK, and Sam Bowles

~ cogiddo ~ Leave a comment

I just came across this post from 2014 by Francois Badenhorst via a post by Evonomics. (I linked the original.) It is a quick profile of Sam Bowles, a well-known scholar preoccupied with the question of inequality. Just like Amartya K. Sen, I recommend Badenhorst’s post because it gives a succinct introduction to the work that Bowles has been doing.

A personal high point is where Bowles talks about his being one of the very first “mathematizers” of economics in the US. I agree completely with him that using rigorous mathematical techniques in economics promotes inttellectual honesty and productivity, provided it does not lead us to ask progressively narrower questions. Both Bowles and Sen are exemplars of asking deep, important questions about inequality and cooperation in economics, using deep mathematics to reach surprising answers.

I post this specifically today because Bowles mentions to Badenhorst an interaction with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the post at the first link above to learn all about it!