Title: Darwinian selection and cultural incentives for resource use: Tikopia as a case study of sustainability

Authors: John M. Gowdy

Addresses: Department of Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180, USA

Abstract: Operating within the framework of conventional welfare economics, the sustainability debate has become mired in sterile discussions about the ||proper|| discount rate and the ||true|| degree of substitutability between various forms of economic capital. This paper suggests abandoning the Neo-Walrasian framework that dominated economics in the second half of the twentieth century and returning to roots of economics as the study of the role of individual incentives within a system of particular cultural values. An alternative approach called generalised Darwinism is used to examine the South Pacific Island of Tikopia, a society that managed to achieve an environmentally sustainable culture.

Keywords: overshoot; collapse; sunk costs; Tikopia; Walrasian economics; Darwinian selection; cultural incentives; resource use; sustainable development; sustainability; welfare economics; individual incentives; cultural values.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2006.010890

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2006 Vol.6 No.4, pp.348 - 361

Published online: 12 Sep 2006 *

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