Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T14:25:12.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Darwinian dynamic of sexual selection that Thorstein Veblen missed and its relevance to institutional economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2018

JON D. WISMAN
JON D. WISMAN*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC 20016
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thorstein Veblen was a pioneer in recognizing the necessity of grounding social science in Darwinian biology and exploring how evolving institutions channel biological proclivities. He especially focused upon how capitalism's social institutions guided the innate need for social status into conspicuous consumption. But why do humans seek status? Surprisingly, Veblen did not pick up on Darwin's concept of sexual selection and recognize it as the driving force behind behavior intended to favorably impress others. This article adds the Darwinian depth that Veblen missed to his understanding of the biologically driven quest for status and its channeling by social institutions. It then explores the turn of most institutionalists away from Veblen's focus on innate behavioral drives in favor of viewing human behavior as more exclusively determined by social conditions. It concludes with reflections on the implications of sexual selection and biological grounding more generally for a theory of institutional economics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , February 2019 , pp. 49 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asso, F. and Fiorito, L. (2004), ‘Human Nature and Economic Institutions: Instinct Psychology, Behaviorism, and the Development of American Intuitionalism’, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 26, 445–477.Google Scholar
Ayres, C. E. (1949), ‘Instrumental Economics’, The New Republic, 121, 18–20.Google Scholar
Ayres, C. E. (1961), Toward a Reasonable Society: The Values of Industrial Civilization, University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Ayres, C. E. (1967), ‘The Theory of Institutional Adjustment’, in Thompson, C. C. (ed.), Institutional Adjustment, Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Bavel, B. V. (2015), ‘History as a Laboratory to Better Understand the Formation of Institutions’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 11, 69–91.Google Scholar
Betzig, L. L. (1993), ‘Sex, Succession, and Stratification in the First Six Civilizations: How Powerful Men Reproduced, Passed Power on to Their Sons, and Used Power to Defend Their Wealth, Women, and Children’, in Ellis, L. (ed.), Social Stratification and Socioeconomic Inequality, Praeger, Westport, CT: pp. 37–74.Google Scholar
Boix, C. (2015), Political Order and Inequality: Their Foundations and Their Consequences for Human Welfare, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowles, S. and Gintis, H. (2013), A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution (reprinted edition), Oxford and Princeton, NJ: Princeton University PressGoogle Scholar
Camic, C. and Hodgson, G. M. (eds) (2011), Essential Writings of Thorstein Veblen, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (2003 [1859]), On the Origin of Species, Cabin John, MD: Wildside Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. (1871), The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1995), Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Diamond, J. (1998), Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Diamond, J. (2012), The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? New York: Viking Adult.Google Scholar
Dutton, D. (2010), The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution (1st edition), New York: Bloomsbury Press.Google Scholar
Edgell, S. and Tilman, R. (1989), ‘The Intellectual Antecedents of Thorstein Veblen: A Reappraisal’, Journal of Economic Issues, 23, 1003–1026.Google Scholar
Flannery, K. and Marcus, J. (2012), The Creation of Inequality: How Our Prehistoric Ancestors Set the Stage for Monarchy, Slavery, and Empire, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Geary, D. C., Vigil, J. and Byrd-Craven, J. (2004), ‘Evolution of Human Mate Choice’, Journal of Sex Research, 41, 27–42.Google Scholar
Hamlin, K. A. (2014), ‘Sexual Selection and the Economics of Marriage: “Female Choice” in the Writings of Edward Ballamy and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’, in America's Darwin: Darwinian Theory and US Literary Culture, Atlanta: University of Georgia Press, pp. 151–180.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2001), ‘Veblen and the Problem of Causality in Economics’, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 23, 385–423.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. (2004), The Evolution of Institutional Economics: Agency, Structure and Darwinism in American Institutionalism, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. and Stoelhorst, J. W (2014), ‘Introduction to the Special Issue on the Future of Institutional and Evolutionary Economics’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10, 513–540.Google Scholar
Jennings, A. and Waller, W. (1998), ‘The Place of Biological Science in Veblen's Economics’, History of Political Economy, 30, 189–217.Google Scholar
Kanazawa, S. (2009), ‘Evolutionary Psychological Foundations of Civil Wars’, Journal of Politics, 71, 25–34.Google Scholar
Kanazawa, S. and Still, M. C. (1999), ‘Why Monogamy?’ Social Forces, 78, 25–50.Google Scholar
Keeley, L. H. (1997), ‘War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage’ (reprinted edition), New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Low, B. S. (2001), Why Sex Matters: A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lumsden, C. and Wilson, E. O. (1983), Promethean Fire: Reflections on the Origin of Mind, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Malinowski, B. (1922), Argonauts of the Western Pacific, New York: Dutton.Google Scholar
Miller, G. (2001), The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature (reprinted edition), New York: Anchor.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. (1999), The Prehistory of the Mind: The Cognitive Origins of Art, Religion and Science (1st edition), London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. R. and Winter, S. G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
North, D. C. (1991), ‘Institutions’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 5, 97–112.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2002), The Blank State: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1944), The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Prum, R. O. (2017), The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Natural World – And Us, New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. (1999), A Theory of Justice (revised edition), Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Sayer, A. (2005), The Moral Significance of Class, Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A. (1976 [1759]), The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Stoelhorst, J. W. (2008), ‘Darwinian Foundations for Evolutionary Economics’, Journal of Economic Issues, 42, 415–423.Google Scholar
Stoelhorst, J. W. (2014), ‘The Future of Evolutionary Economics is in a Vision from the Past’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10, 665–682.Google Scholar
Stoelhorst, J. W. and Richerson, J. (2013), ‘A Naturalistic Theory of Economic Organization’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization: Evolution as a General Theoretical Framework for Economics and Public Policy, 90, S45–S56.Google Scholar
Thompson, W. (2015), Work, Sex, and Power, London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Thurnwald, R. (1932), Economics in Primitive Communities, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tilman, R. (1996), The Intellectual Legacy of Thorstein Veblen: Unresolved Issues, Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Tooby, J. and Cosmides, L. (2005), ‘Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Psychology’, in Buss, D. M. (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, New York: John Wiley, pp. 5–67.Google Scholar
Tool, M. R. (1986), Essays in Social Value Theory: A Neoinstitutionalist Contribution, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Veblen, T. (1934 [1899]), The Theory of the Leisure Class: An Economic Study of Institutions, New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Veblen, T. (1914), The Instinct of Workmanship and the State of the Industrial Arts, New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Veblen, T. (1919), ‘The Socialist Economics of Karl Marx II’, in The Place of Science in Modern Civilization, New York: Russell & Russell, pp. 431–456.Google Scholar
Wade, N. (2007), Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors, New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Wade, N. (2009), The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. S. and Gowdy, J. M. (2015), ‘Human Ultrasociality and the Invisible Hand: Foundational Developments in Evolutionary Science Alter a Foundational Concept in Economics’, Journal of Bioeconomics, 17, 37–52.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. S., Ostrom, E. and Cox, M. E. (2013), ‘Generalizing the Core Design Principles for the Efficacy of Groups’, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 90, S21–S32.Google Scholar
Wilson, M., Daly, M., Gordon, S. and Pratt, A. (1996), ‘Sex Differences in Valuations of the Environment?’ Population and Environment, 18, 143–159.Google Scholar
Wisman, J. D. (1989), ‘Straightening Out the Backward-bending Supply Curve of Labor: From Overt to Covert Compulsion and Beyond’, Review of Political Economy, 1, 94–112.Google Scholar
Wisman, J. D. (2003), ‘The Scope and Promising Future of Social Economics’, Review of Social Economy, 61, 1–21.Google Scholar
Wisman, J. D. and Davis, M. (2013), ‘Degraded Work, Declining Community, Rising Inequality, and the Transformation of the Protestant Ethic in America: 1870–1930’, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 72, 1075–1104.Google Scholar
Wisman, J. D. and Rozansky, J. (1991), ‘The Methodology of Institutionalism Revisited’, Journal of Economic Issues, 25, 709–737.Google Scholar
Wisman, J. D. and Smith, J. F. (2011), ‘Legitimating Inequality: Fooling Most of the People All of the Time’, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 70, 974–1013.Google Scholar
Witt, U. (2014), ‘The Future of Evolutionary Economics: Why the Modalities of Explanation Matter’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10, 645–664.Google Scholar
Zahavi, A. (1975), ‘Mate Selection – A Selection for a Handicap’, Journal of Theoretical Biology, 53, 205–214.Google Scholar
Zahavi, A. and Zahavi, A. (1999), The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York.Google Scholar