Natural Selection and Neanderthal Extinction in a Malthusian Economy

Chu, Angus (2022): Natural Selection and Neanderthal Extinction in a Malthusian Economy.

Abstract

This study develops a Malthusian model with natural selection of human species. We explore how population dynamics of one group of humans may cause the extinction of another group. In our model, different groups of humans engage in hunting-gathering. The larger group of humans can occupy more land. Therefore, in a Malthusian economy, the expansion of one population causes the other population to shrink. Whether it causes the other population to become extinct depends on a structural parameter that is the elasticity of the relative share of land with respect to the relative population size. If this elasticity is below unity, then both populations converge to their positive steady-state levels. However, if the elasticity is equal to unity, then the population that has a lower fertility cost, stronger fertility preference, higher hunting-gathering productivity and higher labor supply converges to a positive steady-state level whereas the other population eventually becomes extinct.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Neanderthals; early modern humans; hunting-gathering; natural selection
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O13 - Agriculture ; Natural Resources ; Energy ; Environment ; Other Primary Products; Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics ; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development ; Environment and Trade ; Sustainability ; Environmental Accounts and Accounting ; Environmental Equity ; Population Growth

References

Ashraf, Q., and Galor, O., 2018. The macrogenoeconomics of comparative development. Journal of Economic Literature, 56, 1119-1155.

Baker, M., 2003. An equilibrium conflict model of land tenure in hunter-gatherer societies. Journal of Political Economy, 111, 124-173.

Baker, M., 2008. A structural model of the transition to agriculture. Journal of Economic Growth, 13, 257-292.

Banks, W., d'Errico, F., Peterson, A.T., Kageyama, M., Sima, A., and Sanchez-Goni, M.-F., 2008. Neanderthal extinction by competitive exclusion. PLoS ONE, 3, e3972.

Bulte, E., Horan, R., and Shogren, J., 2006. Megafauna extinction: A paleoeconomic theory of human overkill in the pleistocene. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 59, 297-323.

Chu, A., 2022. From Neolithic Revolution to Industrialization. MPRA Paper No. 111835.

Degioanni, A., Bonenfant, C., Cabut, S., and Condemi, S., 2019. Living on the edge: Was demographic weakness the cause of Neanderthal demise?. PLoS ONE, 14, e0216742.

Diamond, J., 1992. The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. New York: Harper Collins.

Fa, J., Stewart, J., Lloveras, L., and Vargas, J., 2013. Rabbits and hominin survival in Iberia. Journal of Human Evolution, 64, 233-241.

Flores, J., 1998. A mathematical model for Neanderthal extinction. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 191, 295-298.

Galor, O., 2005. From stagnation to growth: Unified growth theory. Handbook of Economic Growth, 1, 171-293.

Galor, O., 2011. Unified Growth Theory. Princeton University Press.

Galor, O., 2020. The journey of humanity: Roots of inequality in the wealth of nations. Economics and Business Review, 6, 7-18.

Galor, O., and Michalopoulos, S., 2012. Evolution and the growth process: Natural selection of entrepreneurial traits. Journal of Economic Theory, 147, 759-780.

Galor, O., and Moav, O., 2002. Natural selection and the origin of economic growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 1133-1191.

Hansson, I., and Stuart, C., 1990. Malthusian selection of preferences. American Economic Review, 80, 529-544.

Higham, T., Douka, K., Wood, R., et al., 2014. The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance. Nature, 512, 306-309.

Horan, R., Bulte, E., and Shogren, J., 2005. How trade saved humanity from biological exclusion: An economic theory of Neanderthal extinction. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 58, 1-29.

Houldcroft, C.J., and Underdown, S.J., 2016. Neanderthal genomics suggests a Pleistocene time frame for the first epidemiologic transition. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 160, 379-388.

Hublin, JJ., Ben-Ncer, A., Bailey, S., et al., 2017. New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens. Nature, 546, 289-292.

Kuhn, S., and Stiner, M., 2006. What's a mother to do? The division of labor among Neandertals and modern humans in Eurasia. Current Anthropology, 47, 953-981.

Lagerlof, N.-P., 2007. Long-run trends in human body mass. Macroeconomic Dynamics, 11, 367-387.

Locay, L., 1989. From hunting and gathering to agriculture. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 37, 737-756.

Longrich, N., 2020. War in the time of Neanderthals: How our species battled for supremacy for over 100,000 years. The Conversation, November 2, 2020.

Pennisi, E., 2013. More genomes from Denisova Cave show mixing of early human groups. Science, 340, 799.

Reich, D., 2018. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past. New York: Pantheon Books.

Richter, D., Grun, R., Joannes-Boyau, R., et al., 2017. The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age. Nature, 546, 293-296.

Rios, L., Kivell, T.L., Lalueza-Fox, C., et al., 2019. Skeletal anomalies in the Neandertal family of El Sidron (Spain) support a role of inbreeding in Neandertal extinction. Scientific Reports, 9, 1697.

Robson, A., 2001. The biological basis of economic behavior. Journal of Economic Literature, 39, 11-33.

Rogers, A., 1994. Evolution of time preference by natural selection. American Economic Review, 84, 460-481.

Shipman, P., 2012. Do the eyes have it? Dog domestication may have helped humans thrive while Neandertals declined. American Scientist, 100, 198-201.

Smith, V., 1975. The primitive hunter culture, Pleistocene extinction, and the rise of agriculture. Journal of Political Economy, 83, 727-756.

Timmermann, A., 2020. Quantifying the potential causes of Neanderthal extinction: Abrupt climate change versus competition and interbreeding. Quaternary Science Reviews, 238, 106331.

Trinkaus, E., 1986. The Neandertals and modern human origins. Annual Review of Anthropology, 15, 193-218.

Trinkaus, E., 2011. Late Pleistocene adult mortality patterns and modern human establishment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108, 1267-1271.

Vaesen, K., Scherjon, F., Hemerik, L., and Verpoorte, A., 2019. Inbreeding, Allee effects and stochasticity might be sufficient to account for Neanderthal extinction. PLoS ONE, 14, e0225117.

Weisdorf, J., 2005. From foraging to farming: Explaining the Neolithic Revolution. Journal of Economic Surveys, 19, 561-586.