This blog has been inactive for a while. Ive got the domain, and perhaps one day there will be regular contributors. The internet has changed a lot since we started GNXP in June of 2002, so I dont know.

* This domain has almost all the archives on gnxp.com, including many comments, going back to 2002

* My specific content from this weblog, ScienceBlogs, and Discover, can be found at Unz Review, where Im posting.

Posted by Razib Khan March 30, 2014

Im not sure how much drive-by traffic gnxp is continuing to receive, but figured it worthwhile to post a note about my latest working paper, which explores whether male signalling may have a role in driving economic progress. The abstract:

Sexual Selection, Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Growth

The evolution by sexual selection of the male propensity to engage in conspicuous consumption contributed to the emergence of modern rates of economic growth. We develop a model in which males engage in conspicuous consumption to send an honest signal of their quality to females. Males who engage in conspicuous consumption have higher reproductive success than those who do not, as females respond to the costly and honest signal, increasing the prevalence of signalling males in the population over time. As males fund conspicuous consumption through participation in the labour force, the increase in the prevalence of signalling males who engage in conspicuous consumption gives rise to an increase in economic activity that leads to economic growth.

Ive posted some background to the paper over at Evolving Economics. Ive also received some interesting feedback, including this post on The Conversation by Rob Brooks.

Finally, I have posted on SSRN an update to my paper examining the Galor-Moav model in which economic growth is triggered by the interplay between technological progress and an inherited preference for quality or quantity of children. I posted about it on gnxp mid-last year. The revision carries the same story as the original paper, but is tighter and cuts out some of the flotsam.

Posted by Jason Collins September 3, 2012

Read more:
Gene Expression

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