Category Archives: Economics

The Fair Exchange Rate

Posted on 2023-06-25

In ‘What Makes Human Unique?’, I thought about the role exchange could have played as a significant driving force in human evolution. While I was thinking about this, and in particular how calculation skills may be relevant to exchange, it became natural to ask whether calculation could ever have been useful for determining the fair exchange rate? And more generally, is it even possible to calculate the fair exchange rate? Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Mathematics | Leave a comment

What Makes Humans Unique?

Posted on 2020-11-01

There are many features of humans that differentiate us from all other species, but there is one that stands out to me as a key influence for many of the others and the main reason for our huge success as a species, and that is our practice of the Division of Labour, facilitated through trade1. We are the only species where each individual specialises, and depends on the specialised skills and resources of other unrelated individuals for their survival2. Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Evolution, Philosophy, Psychology | Leave a comment

Tragedy of the Commons – Part 2

Posted on 2020-10-27

Tragedy of the Commons is the natural extension of the Prisoner’s Dilemma to an arbitrary number of players. Just as we used Prisoner’s Dilemma as a model to understand the limitations of pairwise cooperation1, so too Tragedy of the Commons is an essential model for understanding the limitations of group cooperation. Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Ethics, Evolution, Politics | Leave a comment

Tragedy of the Commons – Part 1

Posted on 2019-05-22

‘Tragedy of the commons’, and it’s special two player case which is known as ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’, is a game (or class of game) in game theory; which is interesting, both in it’s own right as a mathematical concept because it is so simple and yet has a surprising – even paradoxical feeling – result, but also because it is such a useful and natural model in evolution, economics and ethics, for understanding the limits of cooperation.1 Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Ethics, Evolution, Mathematics | Leave a comment