Academics

Economic Darwinism
Student Name:
School Affiliation:

Abstract
This paper examines the concept of Economic Darwinism which is an economic comparison of economic aspects such as consumer behavior or market competition to the Darwin Evolutionary theory. The paper exploits the premise that behavioral assumptions made in economics are actually due to “elimination of the unfit”. This refers to the replacement of those individuals whose economic behavior is not in accordance to principles and concepts such as profit maximization. In analyzing this topic, the approach used involves consideration of playing-the-field, symmetric game splayed between individuals recurrently. In analyzing behavior in an economic sense, the Economic Darwinism theory provides two forces to explain the phenomenon. First, “Darwinian Selection” stipulates that if current economic behavior results if pay off variances, the individuals whose variances yields the least pay off have a high probability of being replaced by those individuals with random behavior. Second we have “Mutation”. This states that at any one point, individuals have a high probability of deviating from their current behavior to a more random behavior which constitutes to Darwin’s mutation.   This paper also outlines the economic implications of the Darwin selection and Mutation in relation to externalities (Boschma & Martin, 2010).
In conclusion, Economic Darwinism brings out factors that affect the goals of a business which are also referred to as externalities. Positive externalities are considered to be elements possessed by individuals who have adjusted their behavior in line with Darwin selection model. Negative externalities have negative implications on various economic entities such as businesses. The latter should adopt to the externalities by adopting appropriate behavior as per Darwin mutation approach.
Economic Darwinism
The idea behind Economic Darwinism is that the owners as well as the managers of economic...