Equilibrium Allele Distribution in Trading Populations

Gilles  Saint-Paul

doi:10.4236/ns.2015.73012

Gilles Saint-Paul

Abstract: This paper extends the results of Saint-Paul (2007) regarding the long-run survival rates of alleles in trading populations, to a more general context where the number of loci is arbitrarily large under general assumptions about sexual reproduction. The central result is that fitness-reducing alleles can survive in a trading population, provided their frequency is not too large. However, the greater the number of loci that matter for fitness, the more stringent the conditions under which these alleles can survive.

Keywords: Gene-Culture Coevolution, Markets, Division of Labor, Population Genetics

Cite this paper: Saint-Paul, G. (2015) Equilibrium Allele Distribution in Trading Populations. Natural Science, 7, 103-116. doi: 10.4236/ns.2015.73012.

References

[1] Cavalli-Sforza, L. and Feldman, M.W. (1981) Cultural Transmission and Evolution. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

[2] Lumsden, C.J. and Wilson, E.O. (1981) Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

[3] Gintis, H. (2003) The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Altruism: Gene-Culture Coevolution and the Internalization of Norms. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 220, 407-418.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/jtbi.2003.3104

[4] Boyd, R. and Richerson, P.J. (1985) Culture and the Evolutionary Process. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

[5] Hirshleifer, J. (1977) Economics from a Biological Viewpoint. Journal of Law and Economics, 20, 1-52.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/466891

[6] Robson, A. (2001) The Biological Basis of Economic Behavior. Journal of Economic Literature, 29, 11-33.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/jel.39.1.11

[7] Seabright, P. (2004) The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

[8] Saint-Paul, G. (2007) On Market Forces and Human Evolution. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 247, 397-412.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.03.021

[9] Horan, R.D., Bulte, E.H. and Shogren, J.F. (2009) How Trade Saved Humanity from Biological Extinction: An Economic Theory of Neanderthal Extinction. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 58, 1-29.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2004.03.009

[10] Hammerstein, P., Ed. (2003) Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation. MIT Press, Cambridge.

[11] Bowles, S. and Hammerstein, P. (2003) Does Market Theory Apply to Biology. In Hammerstein, P., Ed., Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation, MIT Press, Cambridge, 153-165.