[Translate to English:] WU Bühne Festsaal

Economics and human motivation: Charles Darwin meets Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant

Location: WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) Festsaal 1 Starting on 18 December 2019 at 18:00

Organizer WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business) Marketing & Kommunikation

Diskussion auf Englisch

Economic analyses are usually based on the assumption that decision-makers are purely self-interested. However, in many controlled laboratory experiments, this homo oeconomicus model has been shown to be not generally valid. Also introspection suggests that our motivation often is much richer, usually also including other-regarding or moral considerations. Then what kind of preferences should one expect Darwinian evolution to bring forth in spatially structured populations such as those of homo sapiens? In joint theoretical research with Ingela Alger (Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse and Toulouse School of Economics) we argue that evolution leads to what we call homo moralis preferences, a combination of self-interest, in line with Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, and morality in line with Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative. In subsequent work, also involving biologist Laurent Lehmann (Lausanne) and experimentalist Boris van Leeuwen (Tilburg), we show that a third component may enter, namely, a grain of envy. We call individuals with all three motivational components (self-interest, morality, and envy) competitive moralists. Such richer motivations, not before studied, have important implications for economic behavior and economic policy.

Vortrag:

Jörgen Weibull, A.O. Wallenberg Professor of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics

Moderation:

Ulrich Berger, Institute for Analytical Economics, WU

As the number of seats in Ceremonial Hall 1 is limited, seating is provided on a first-come-first-served basis.

*Please note: When you click “Confirm registration”, you automatically consent to the collection, processing, and storage of your personal data (first and last name/email address).

The personal data you have provided in this form is required to sign up for the above event and will be used to organize and hold this event (pursuant to Art. 6 [1] item b of the GDPR). In addition, WU processes this data for public relations purposes and for its own marketing purposes, in particular to send you further information about this or similar events and to inform you about other WU offers. The legal basis is WU’s legitimate interests (pursuant to Art. 6 [1] item f of the GDPR). You may withdraw your consent to the use of your data for these purposes at any time. Your data will be deleted three months after the last contact with you, unless legal storage obligations require longer storage. Your personal data will only be passed on to third parties if this is permissible under applicable data protection laws, in particular if it is necessary for the organization of the event, for billing purposes, or for other legal reasons. Further information on the processing of personal data during a visit to the WU website or when accessing content provided under the “wu.ac.at” domain, as well as on your rights as a data subject, can be found in the WU Website Privacy Policy.



Back to overview