We offer a theory of gender differences in parental altruism based on the asymmetry that female fertility is constrained but male fertility is relatively unconstrained. Modelling human preferences as having been shaped during the Pleistocene, we derive evolutionarily stable, co-evolved male and...

We examine how preferences evolve by natural selection in a competitive environment similar to that characterizing much of our evolutionary past. We find that the evolutionarily stable preferences in this context exhibit a concern not only for absolute payoffs but also for relative payoffs, and...

In this article we examine the interaction between firms' product and process innovation decisions and the role patent policy can play in directing technological change toward a socially efficient mix of innovations. Product innovation is a variant on a pioneer's new product; process innovation...

Religion, ethnicity, and political ideology all lend themselves to the perpetration of mass atrocities by creating a sense of identity that sets up an Us/Them dichotomy. Atrocities here are seen as arising from the motive of acquiring territory but augmented by other-regarding preferences that...

Books reviewed: Joseph E. Stiglitz and Shahid Yusuf (eds) Rethinking the East Asian Miracle Hal Hill and Jo-o M. Saldanha, East Timor: Development Challenges for the World's Newest Nation Nat J. Colletta, Teck Ghee Lim and Anita Kelles-Viitanen (eds), Social Cohesion and Conflict Prevention in...

We attempt to explain the observation that rival firms often share their technologies. We show that the trading of technical information over the long haul can be sustained as an equilibrium in supergames. The strategy of ejection of a cheating firm from a technology-trading coalition, followed...

In a more general setting than has been considered hitherto, this paper examines how the incumbent in a market threatened by entry can exploit its first-mover advantage by licensing its technology not to a potential entrant but to firms that would have remained outside the industry. It is shown,...

We present data on grades from three Canadian universities. These data suggest that grading standards differ significantly across disciplines within universities. To the extent that grading standards are not uniform across disciplines, the GPAs of students with different course mixes cannot be...