Richard Edwards

Samuel Bowles

Frank Roosevelt

Competition, Command, and Change

Understanding Capitalism

Democracy And Capitalism

Should the idea of economic man-the amoral and self-interested Homo economicus-determine how we expect people to respond to monetary rewards, punishments, and other incentives? Samuel Bowles answers with a resounding "no." Policies that follow from this paradigm, he shows, may "crowd out" ethical and generous motives and thus backfire. But incentives per se are not really the culprit. Bowles shows that crowding out occurs when the message conveyed by fines and rewards is that self-interest is expected, that the employer thinks the workforce is lazy, or that the citizen cannot otherwise be trusted to contribute to the public good. Using historical and recent case studies as well as behavioral experiments, Bowles shows how well-designed incentives can crowd in the civic motives on which good governance depends.

why good incentives are no substitute for good citizens

The moral economy

Drawing upon recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioural experiments and modeling of dynamic processes, Bowles develops a theory about the interraction between economic institutions and individual behaviour.

Behavior, Institutions, and Evolution

Microeconomics

Herbert Gintis

Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life

Schooling in Capitalist America

Why do humans, uniquely among animals, cooperate in large numbers to advance projects for the common good? Contrary to the conventional wisdom in biology and economics, this generous and civic-minded behavior is widespread and cannot be explained simply by far-sighted self-interest or a desire to help close genealogical kin. In A Cooperative Species, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis--pioneers in the new experimental and evolutionary science of human behavior--show that the central issue is not why selfish people act generously, but instead how genetic and cultural evolution has produced a species in which substantial numbers make sacrifices to uphold ethical norms and to help even total strangers. The authors describe how, for thousands of generations, cooperation with fellow group members has been essential to survival. Groups that created institutions to protect the civic-minded from exploitation by the selfish flourished and prevailed in conflicts with less cooperative groups. Key to this process was the evolution of social emotions such as shame and guilt, and our capacity to internalize social norms so that acting ethically became a personal goal rather than simply a prudent way to avoid punishment. Using experimental, archaeological, genetic, and ethnographic data to calibrate models of the coevolution of genes and culture as well as prehistoric warfare and other forms of group competition, A Cooperative Species provides a compelling and novel account of how humans came to be moral and cooperative.

Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution

A Cooperative Species

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Our New West. Records of Travel Between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Including a Ful

Carolinn Edna Skinner Twing

Black Sheep

Karla Hoff

Steven N. Durlauf

Much popular belief--and public policy--rests on the idea that those born into poverty have it in their power to escape. But the persistence of poverty and ever-growing economic inequality around the world have led many economists to seriously question the model of individual economic self-determination when it comes to the poor. In Poverty Traps, Samuel Bowles, Steven Durlauf, Karla Hoff, and the book's other contributors argue that there are many conditions that may trap individuals, groups, and whole economies in intractable poverty. For the first time the editors have brought together the perspectives of economics, economic history, and sociology to assess what we know--and don't know--about such traps. Among the sources of the poverty of nations, the authors assign a primary role to social and political institutions, ranging from corruption to seemingly benign social customs such as kin systems. Many of the institutions that keep nations poor have deep roots in colonial history and persist long after their initial causes are gone. Neighborhood effects--influences such as networks, role models, and aspirations--can create hard-to-escape pockets of poverty even in rich countries. Similar individuals in dissimilar socioeconomic environments develop different preferences and beliefs that can transmit poverty or affluence from generation to generation. The book presents evidence of harmful neighborhood effects and discusses policies to overcome them, with attention to the uncertainty that exists in evaluating such policies.

Poverty Traps

Pranab Bardhan

Jean-Marie Baland

Would improving the economic, social, and political condition of the world's disadvantaged people slow--or accelerate--environmental degradation? In Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability, leading social scientists provide answers to this difficult question, using new research on the impact of inequality on environmental sustainability. The contributors' findings suggest that inequality may exacerbate environmental problems by making it more difficult for individuals, groups, and nations to cooperate in the design and enforcement of measures to protect natural assets ranging from local commons to the global climate. But a more equal division of a given amount of income could speed the process of environmental degradation--for example, if the poor value the preservation of the environment less than the rich do, or if the consumption patterns of the poor entail proportionally greater environmental degradation than that of the rich. The contributors also find that the effect of inequality on cooperation and environmental sustainability depends critically on the economic and political institutions governing how people interact, and the technical nature of the environmental asset in question. The contributors focus on the local commons because many of the world's poorest depend on them for their livelihoods, and recent research has made great strides in showing how private incentives, group governance, and government policies might combine to protect these resources.

Inequality, Cooperation, and Environmental Sustainability

Records of Travel Between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean. Over the Plains--over the Mountains--through the Great Interior Basin--over the Sierra Nevadas--to and Up and Down the Pacific Coast. With Details of the Wonderful Natural Scenery, Agriculture, Mines, Business, Social Life, Progress, and Prospects ... Including a Full Description of the Pacific Railroad; and of the Life of the Mormons, Indians, and Chinese. With Map, Portraits, and Twelve Full Page Illustrations

Our New West

A Summer Vacaton in the Parks and Mountains of Colorado

The Switzerland of America

Consists of 22 letters, originally published in the Springfield Republican, and of supplementary papers on related topics, including the speeches made by Mr. Colfax during the trip.

A Summer's Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States, with Speaker Colfax

Across the Continent

Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican newspaper, accompanied Speaker of the House of Representatives Schuyler Colfax on this trans-continental trip in 1865. The pair travelled by rail from Springfield to Atchison, then by stagecoach through Oregon and Washington to Placerville, California, the easternmost reach of the new Pacific railroad, and then again by rail on to San Francisco. They returned via ship to Panama, across the Isthmus by rail, and home by sea. This early travelogue is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It contains details of Samuel Bowles’s travels through North America and his experiences along the way. This is a fascinating work and is thoroughly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of America.

Across The Continent - A Summer's Journey To The Rocky Mountains, The Mormons And The Pacific States

These two volumes collect some of the principal articles that have contributed to the renewal and development of radical political economy during the past generation. Radical Political Economy draws upon Marxian, institutional and Keynesian perspectives to construct a new and comprehensive analysis of modern capitalism, seeking to integrate the horizontal (competition), vertical (command), and time (change) dimensions of economic and other social relations.

Radical Political Economy

Across the continent: a summer's journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States, with Speaker Colfax

Melissa Osborne Groves

Is the United States "the land of equal opportunity" or is the playing field tilted in favor of those whose parents are wealthy, well educated, and white? If family background is important in getting ahead, why? And if the processes that transmit economic status from parent to child are unfair, could public policy address the problem? Unequal Chances provides new answers to these questions by leading economists, sociologists, biologists, behavioral geneticists, and philosophers. New estimates show that intergenerational inequality in the United States is far greater than was previously thought. Moreover, while the inheritance of wealth and the better schooling typically enjoyed by the children of the well-to-do contribute to this process, these two standard explanations fail to explain the extent of intergenerational status transmission. The genetic inheritance of IQ is even less important. Instead, parent-offspring similarities in personality and behavior may play an important role. Race contributes to the process, and the intergenerational mobility patterns of African Americans and European Americans differ substantially. Following the editors' introduction are chapters by Greg Duncan, Ariel Kalil, Susan E. Mayer, Robin Tepper, and Monique R. Payne; Bhashkar Mazumder; David J. Harding, Christopher Jencks, Leonard M. Lopoo, and Susan E. Mayer; Anders Björklund, Markus Jäntti, and Gary Solon; Tom Hertz; John C. Loehlin; Melissa Osborne Groves; Marcus W. Feldman, Shuzhuo Li, Nan Li, Shripad Tuljapurkar, and Xiaoyi Jin; and Adam Swift.

Family Background and Economic Success

Unequal Chances

Originally published in 1986, Bowles and Gintis present a critique of contemporary Marxian and liberal political theory. They show that 'capitalism' and 'democracy' - although widely held jointly to characterize Western society - are sharply contrasting systems regulating both the process of human development and the historical evolution of whole societies. They examine in detail the relationship between political theory and economics, and explore the multifaceted character of power in modern societies.

Democracy and Capitalism

Simon D. Halliday

The authors bring into the classroom the ideas that today's researchers and policy-makers use - including behavioral economics, game theory, and incomplete contracts. Modern microeconomics is applied to pressing issues that students care about - inequality, climate change, and innovation - and illustrated with empirical case studies.

Competition, Conflict, and Coordination

In this novel introduction to modern microeconomic theory, Samuel Bowles returns to the classical economists' interest in the wealth and poverty of nations and people, the workings of the institutions of capitalist economies, and the coevolution of individual preferences and the structures of markets, firms, and other institutions. Using recent advances in evolutionary game theory, contract theory, behavioral experiments, and the modeling of dynamic processes, he develops a theory of how economic institutions shape individual behavior, and how institutions evolve due to individual actions, technological change, and chance events. Topics addressed include institutional innovation, social preferences, nonmarket social interactions, social capital, equilibrium unemployment, credit constraints, economic power, generalized increasing returns, disequilibrium outcomes, and path dependency. Each chapter is introduced by empirical puzzles or historical episodes illuminated by the modeling that follows, and the book closes with sets of problems to be solved by readers seeking to improve their mathematical modeling skills. Complementing standard mathematical analysis are agent-based computer simulations of complex evolving systems that are available online so that readers can experiment with the models. Bowles concludes with the time-honored challenge of "getting the rules right," providing an evaluation of markets, states, and communities as contrasting and yet sometimes synergistic structures of governance. Must reading for students and scholars not only in economics but across the behavioral sciences, this engagingly written and compelling exposition of the new microeconomics moves the field beyond the conventional models of prices and markets toward a more accurate and policy-relevant portrayal of human social behavior.

Samuel Bowles

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