Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/20022
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 0503
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems, Jena
Abstract: 
Hayek's approach to cultural and institutional evolution has been frequently criticized because it is explicitly based on the controversial notion of (cultural) group selection. In this paper this criticism is rejected on the basis of recent works on biological and cultural evolution. The paper's main contention is that Hayek employed group selection as a tool for the explanation of selection among several equilibria, and not as a vehicle for the emergence of out of equilibrium behavior (i.e. altruism). The paper shows that Hayek's ideas foreshadowed some of the most promising developments in the current literature on the emergence of norms.
Subjects: 
Hayek
cultural evolution
group selection
social norms
JEL: 
B31
B41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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