Links this week:

  1. The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization has a special issue out “Evolution as a General Theoretical Framework for Economics and Public Policy”. You can also access the papers through the Evolution Institute website and there is a series of summary articles in Evolution: This View of Life. Many look worth a read, and I’ll post about them over coming weeks/months.

  2. David Sloan Wilson (one of the editors and authors in the JEBO special issue above) has an article in aeon magazine critiquing economics from an evolutionary angle.

  3. Also in aeon magazine, an interesting take on obesity (HT: John Hawks). It’s fair to say that a simple “calorie in-calorie out” analysis doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. (But I don’t buy the bit about lab animal food staying the same).

  4. Another article from Evolution: This View of Life that is worth a look - Daniel Hruschka on collectivism versus individualism.

  5. Support for Gregory Clark’s argument that analysis of social mobility over a single generation overestimates its extent - a child’s socioeconomic position is determined by their grandparents, not just their parents (blog post on this article to come soon).

  6. Britain is undergoing a baby boom. I expect this will be a common developed country observation over the next decade.