Christian Cordes

Can Sustainable Consumption Be Learned? (2007)

Bünstorf, Guido, Cordes, Christian

This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population via processes of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favor environmentally harmful...

The Role of Biology and Culture in Veblenian Consumption Dynamics (2007)

Cordes, Christian

This paper incorporates aspects of humans’ evolved cognition into a formal model of cultural evolution and scrutinizes their interactions with population-level processes. It is shown how the biased...

Emergent Cultural Phenomena and their Cognitive Foundations (2007)

Cordes, Christian

To explain emergent cultural phenomena, this paper argues, it is inevitable to understand the evolution of complex human cognitive adaptations and their links to the population-level dynamics of...

A Naturalistic Approach to the Theory of the Firm : The Role of Cooperation and Cultural Evolution (2006)

Cordes, Christian, Richerson, Peter J., McElreath, Richard, Strimling, Pontus

One reason why firms exist, this paper argues, is because they are suitable organizations within which cooperative production systems based on human social predispositions can evolve. In addition, we...

How Does Opportunistic Behavior Influence Firm Size? (2006)

Cordes, Christian, Richerson, Peter J., McElreath, Richard, Strimling, Pontus

This paper relates firm size and opportunism by showing that, given certain behavioral dispositions of humans, the size of a profit-maximizing firm can be determined by cognitive aspects underlying...

Toward a Naturalistic Foundation of the Social Contract (2005)

Cordes, Christian, Schubert, Christian

This paper delivers a step toward a naturalistic foundation of the social contract. While mainstream social contract theory is based on an original position model that is defined in an aprioristic...

Veblen's "Instinct of Workmanship", its Cognitive Foundations, and Some Implications for Economic Theory (2004)

Cordes, Christian

This paper delivers some findings from the present-day cognitive sciences on man’s cognitive dispositions that support aspects of Veblen’s "nstinct of workmanship," which is an essential starting...

The Autocatalytic Character of the Growth of Production Knowledge (2004)

Brenner, Thomas, Cordes, Christian

This paper analyzes how the qualitative change in human labor occurs in mutual dependence with the advancement of the epistemic base of technology. Historically, a recurrent pattern can be...

Darwinism in Economics : From Analogy to Continuity (2004)

Cordes, Christian

Currently there is an ongoing discussion about how Darwinian concepts should be harnessed to further develop economic theory. Two approaches to this question, Universal Darwinism and the continuity...

Long-term tendencies in technological creativity - a preference-based approach

Christian Cordes

Given the significance of technology in the course of socio-economic evolution, the driving forces behind the continuous accretion of technological knowledge deserve particular attention. This paper...

Veblen's "Instinct of Workmanship," its Cognitive Foundations, and Some Implications for Economic Theory

Christian Cordes

This paper delivers some findings from the present-day cognitive sciences on man’s cognitive dispositions that support aspects of Veblen’s "nstinct of workmanship," which is an essential starting...

The autocatalytic character of the growth of production knowledge: What role does human labor play?

Thomas Brenner, Christian Cordes

This paper analyzes how the qualitative change in human labor occurs in mutual dependence with the advancement of the epistemic base of technology. Historically, a recurrent pattern can be...

Darwinism in Economics: From Analogy to Continuity

Christian Cordes

Currently there is an ongoing discussion about how Darwinian concepts should be harnessed to further develop economic theory. Two approaches to this question, Universal Darwinism and the continuity...

Toward a naturalistic foundation of the social contract

Christian Cordes, Christian Schubert

This paper delivers a step toward a naturalistic foundation of the social contract. While mainstream social contract theory is based on an original position model that is defined in an aprioristic...

The Human Adaptation for Culture and its Behavioral Implications

Christian Cordes

During phylogeny, man adapted for culture in ways other primates did not. This key adaptation is the one that enabled humans to understand other individuals as intentional agents like the self. This...

How Does Opportunistic Behavior Influence Firm Size?

Christian Cordes, Peter J. Richerson, Richard McElreath, Pontus Strimling

This paper relates firm size and opportunism by showing that, given certain behavioral dispositions of humans, the size of a profit-maximizing firm can be determined by cognitive aspects underlying...

A potential limit on competition

Christian Cordes

Competition, Well-being, Novelty, Policy making, D01, I31, O33, D60, B52,

Darwinism in economics: from analogy to continuity

Christian Cordes

Economic selection theory, Economic theory development, Darwinism, Cultural evolution, Continuity hypothesis, B41, B52, A12, D00, O10,

Can sustainable consumption be learned? A model of cultural evolution

Buenstorf, Guido, Cordes, Christian

This paper shows how sustainable consumption patterns can spread within a population via processes of social learning even though a strong individual learning bias may favor environmentally harmful...

The Role of Biology and Culture in Veblenian Consumption Dynamics

Christian Cordes

This paper incorporates aspects of humans' evolved cognition into a formal model of cultural evolution and scrutinizes their interactions with population-level processes. It is shown how the biased...