Individual Strategy & Social Structure – An Evolutionary Theory of Institutions - Hardcover

Young, H Peyton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069102684X ISBN 13: 9780691026848

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1998

Synopsis

In this volume, the author argues for a realistic view in which people have a limited understanding of their environment. He seeks to show how the cumulative experiences of many individuals coalesce over time into customs, norms and institutions that govern economic and social life. He develops a theory that predicts how such institutions evolve and characterizes their welfare properties.

About this title

About the Author

H. Peyton Young is Scott and Barbara Black Professor of Economics at The Johns Hopkins University and Codirector of the Center
on Social and Economic Dynamics at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of Equity: In Theory and Practice (Princeton).

From the Back Cover

"Peyton Young's study puts the evolution of institutions on the basis of individual choices in an adaptive and adapting environment. It puts a firm foundation under the vague idea of 'spontaneous order.' The exposition is extraordinarily clear; Young introduces and explains the mathematical tools he uses in his brilliant synthesis and development, which combines ideas from evolutionary theory and the study of learning. The book is accessible to the beginner in the field and yet no one, no matter how expert, will fail to learn something."--Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University, 1972 Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Individual Strategy and Social Structure makes a convincing case for an adaptive, low-rationality, probabilistic approach to game theory and to economics and social science in general."--Alvin E. Roth, Harvard University

"In this well written and elegant volume, Peyton Young takes a large step in redirecting the theory and the problems that game theorists deal with. Rather than asking what is the proper equilibrium notion for a game played by fully rational agents capable of making all necessary calculations, he asks what types of conventions of behavior or social institutions will intelligent but not omniscient agents create for themselves when they repeatedly face the same problem that needs to be solved. Clearly this is what the real world looks like and Young brings us closer to it."--Andrew Schotter, New York University

From the Inside Flap

"Peyton Young's study puts the evolution of institutions on the basis of individual choices in an adaptive and adapting environment. It puts a firm foundation under the vague idea of 'spontaneous order.' The exposition is extraordinarily clear; Young introduces and explains the mathematical tools he uses in his brilliant synthesis and development, which combines ideas from evolutionary theory and the study of learning. The book is accessible to the beginner in the field and yet no one, no matter how expert, will fail to learn something."--Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University, 1972 Nobel Laureate in Economics

"Individual Strategy and Social Structure makes a convincing case for an adaptive, low-rationality, probabilistic approach to game theory and to economics and social science in general."--Alvin E. Roth, Harvard University

"In this well written and elegant volume, Peyton Young takes a large step in redirecting the theory and the problems that game theorists deal with. Rather than asking what is the proper equilibrium notion for a game played by fully rational agents capable of making all necessary calculations, he asks what types of conventions of behavior or social institutions will intelligent but not omniscient agents create for themselves when they repeatedly face the same problem that needs to be solved. Clearly this is what the real world looks like and Young brings us closer to it."--Andrew Schotter, New York University

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 069102684X
• ISBN 13: 9780691026848
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 204