The evolutionary dynamics of tolerance

Correani, Luca, Di Dio , Fabio and Garofalo, Giuseppe (2009): The evolutionary dynamics of tolerance. Unpublished.

Abstract

This paper incorporates the phenomenon of tolerance, as the ability to accept diversity, into an economic analysis showing how different aptitudes to trust and cooperation can affect economic outcomes. In the economic system we propose, tolerance is associated with the different weight that agents attribute to their own nature and to the institutional parameters in their utility function. We thus construct a model of overlapping generations, showing that the incentives that influence descendants’ predisposition to tolerance depend on both institutional factors, where behaviour is imposed by rules, and on social (or cultural) factors, found in popular customs and established traditions. Our study highlights the absolute impossibility of affirming tolerance through formal rules. In fact, intolerance is a persistent attitude and its control is only possible through constant and continuous interventions on the educational processes of new generations (intolerance trap).

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Tolerance; Evolutionary dynamics; Imperfect empathy
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O17 - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements: Legal, Social, Economic, and Political; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D02 - Institutions: Design, Formation, and Operations; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Social Norms and Social Capital; Social Networks

References

Akerlof G.A., Kranton R.E., (2000), Economics and identity, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. CXV, Issue 3, pp.715-753.

Arce D.G., Sandler T., (2003) “An evolutionary game approach to fundamentalist and conflict”, Journal of institutional and theoretical economics, 159, 132-154.

Arce D.G., Sandler T., (2008), “Fitting in: groups effects and the evolution of fundamentalism”, Journal of Policy Modeling (forthcoming).

Bisin A., Verdier T., (1998), “On the cultural transmission of preferences for social status”, Journal of Public Economics, 70, 75-97.

Bisin A., Verdier T., (2000), “The economics of cultural transmission and the dynamic of preferences”, Journal of Economic Theory, 97, pp. 298-319.

Corneo G., Jeanne O., (2009), “A theory of tolerance”, Journal of public economics, 93, pp. 691-702.

Darity W.A., Mason P.L., Stewart J.B., (2006), “The economics of identity: the origin and persistence of racial identity norms”, Journal of Economic Behaviour & Organization, Vol. 60, pp. 283-305.

Epstein G.S., Gang I.N., (2007), Understanding the development of fundamentalism, Public Choice, 132, pp. 257-271.

Hauk E., Saez Marti M., (2002), “On the cultural transmission of corruption”, Journal of Economic Theory, 107, 311-322.

Iannaccone L.R., (1997), Toward an economic theory of “Fundamentalism”, Journal of institutional and Theoretical Economics, Vol. 153, pp. 100-116.

Inglehart R., Baker W., (2000), “Modernization, cultural change and the persistence of traditional values”, American Sociological Review, 65, pp. 19-51.

Inglehart R., “Modernization and postmodernization”, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1997.

North D.C., “Institutions, institutional change and economic performance”, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Persell C.H., Green A., Gurevich L., (2001), “Civil society, economic distress and social tolerance”, Sociological Forum, Vol. 16, n°2.

Sen, A., (2006), Identity and violence. The illusion of destiny. New York: Norton