W.D. Hamilton's Inclusive Fitness Theory explains the conditions that favor the emergence and maintenance of social cooperation. Today we know that these include direct and indirect benefits an agent obtains by its actions, and through interactions with kin and with genetically unrelated individuals. That is, in addition to kin-selection, assortation or homophily, and social synergies drive the...

We develop a Systems Dynamics model for capturing the key interactions involved in the evolution of the subprime mortgage crisis. In particular, we propose an aggregate modeling resolution that involves three main sub-systems, namely, an aggregate banking system, an aggregate housing market and an economic environment. The model exposes the physics of each individual system as well as influence...

AIMS This study aimed at testing whether drinking volume and episodic heavy drinking (EHD) frequency in Germany are polarizing between consumption levels over time. Polarization is defined as a reduction in alcohol use among the majority of the population, while a subpopulation with a high intake level maintains or increases its drinking or its EHD frequency. The polarization hypothesis was tes...

In this paper, we offer a general analytical framework illustrating the complex two-way interactions between trade and transnational terrorism. We then survey the recent economic literature in light of this framework by pointing to the importance in empirical studies a) to control appropriately for theses interactions, b) to distinguish between "source" countries and "target" countries of terro...

This paper is to study the resource curse applying annual data from 2002 to 2016 for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members i.e. Algeria, Iran, Kuwait, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. For this purpose, there were concerned the interactions role of resource abundance and institution quality, and their marginal effect of the countrie...

This article examines some aspects of socioeconomic development in light of complexity theory. It examines some nonlinear interactions between economic systems, institutions, population growth, knowledge creation and utilization, and cultural values. Multiple possibilities of behavioral patterns resulting from these nonlinear interactions are emphasized. It is argued that when “sustainability” ...

Using detailed data on friendship networks within neighborhoods, we investigate the importance of social interactions in one’s own residential neighborhood in the demand for housing quality. We find evidence consistent with the presence of peer effects, especially for households living in urban areas. Our findings are in line with the prediction of a model where conformity preferences underlie ...

Willingness to risk is an important characteristic of entrepreneurship and a crucial factor for economic growth and economic development. An experimental study has been performed that demonstrates that people can use even a single old episodes from their own experience where they acted in a risky manner and benefited from that and chose by analogy to act risky in a new situation. Moreover, it h...