Arthur J Robson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1182154 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arthur J Robson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arthur J |
| FAMILY NAME | Robson |
| SIGNATURE | ROBSON A J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Western University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Why Sex? and Why Only in Pairs
Understanding the purpose of sex is a fundamental unresolved problem in evolutionary biology. The difficulty is not that there are too few theories of sex, the difficulty is that there are too many and none stand out. To distinguish between theories, we ask: Why are there no triparental species with offspring composed of the genetic material of three individuals? A successful theory should confer an advantage to biparental sex over asexual reprod…
Complex Evolutionary Systems and the Red Queen
Some of the most obvious complex adaptive systems are biological. A key concern in biology is how the overall properties of systems relate to the behaviour of their components. Competition between these components in the form of an arms race, the 'Red Queen effect', helps explain the trend towards more complex organisms. This effect helps explain why these biological systems became and remained complex. It may well also have driven the most disti…
The emergence of humans: The coevolution of intelligence and longevity with intergenerational transfers
Two striking differences between humans and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, are the size of our brains (larger by a factor of three or four) and our life span (longer by a factor of about two). Our thesis is that these two distinctive features of humans are products of coevolutionary selection. The large human brain is an investment with initial costs and later rewards, which coevolved with increased energy allocations to …
Evolution and Human Nature
This paper considers how biological evolution shaped the elements of a simple but complete model of economic decision making. These elements are preferences, beliefs and rationality. Whereas Nature might impose preferences over consumption on the individual, Nature might optimally allow beliefs to be influenced by local knowledge and final choice to be flexible. This reinforces the usual approach. On the one hand, evolution also suggests that som…
Why Would Nature Give Individuals Utility Functions
Consider the possible biological origin of the expected utility criterion. On the one hand, if individuals possess a utility function stemming from the rate of production of expected offspring, they can rapidly adapt to arbitrary unknown distributions in a bandit problem. Embedding such a utility function in a simple rule of thumb involving no beliefs about probabilities leads to evolutionary optimality. On the other hand, if any rule whatever yi…
Comparative statics of the market for a consumer durable with an age/quality structure: A reprise of models of urban structure
Urban structure, gas prices, and the demand for transportation
The Effect of Urban Structure on the Concentration of Pollution
Cost-benefit analysis and the use of urban land for transportation
Two models of urban air pollution
Why Would Nature Give Individuals Utility Functions
Consider the possible biological origin of the expected utility criterion. On the one hand, if individuals possess a utility function stemming from the rate of production of expected offspring, they can rapidly adapt to arbitrary unknown distributions in a bandit problem. Embedding such a utility function in a simple rule of thumb involving no beliefs about probabilities leads to evolutionary optimality. On the other hand, if any rule whatever yi…
Cost-benefit analysis and the use of urban land for transportation
Evolution and Human Nature
This paper considers how biological evolution shaped the elements of a simple but complete model of economic decision making. These elements are preferences, beliefs and rationality. Whereas Nature might impose preferences over consumption on the individual, Nature might optimally allow beliefs to be influenced by local knowledge and final choice to be flexible. This reinforces the usual approach. On the one hand, evolution also suggests that som…
Urban structure, gas prices, and the demand for transportation
Two models of urban air pollution
Comparative statics of the market for a consumer durable with an age/quality structure: A reprise of models of urban structure
Complex Evolutionary Systems and the Red Queen
Some of the most obvious complex adaptive systems are biological. A key concern in biology is how the overall properties of systems relate to the behaviour of their components. Competition between these components in the form of an arms race, the 'Red Queen effect', helps explain the trend towards more complex organisms. This effect helps explain why these biological systems became and remained complex. It may well also have driven the most disti…
The Effect of Urban Structure on the Concentration of Pollution
Cost-benefit analysis and the use of urban land for transportation
Two models of urban air pollution
The Effect of Urban Structure on the Concentration of Pollution
Urban structure, gas prices, and the demand for transportation
Comparative statics of the market for a consumer durable with an age/quality structure: A reprise of models of urban structure
Why Would Nature Give Individuals Utility Functions
Consider the possible biological origin of the expected utility criterion. On the one hand, if individuals possess a utility function stemming from the rate of production of expected offspring, they can rapidly adapt to arbitrary unknown distributions in a bandit problem. Embedding such a utility function in a simple rule of thumb involving no beliefs about probabilities leads to evolutionary optimality. On the other hand, if any rule whatever yi…
The emergence of humans: The coevolution of intelligence and longevity with intergenerational transfers
Two striking differences between humans and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, are the size of our brains (larger by a factor of three or four) and our life span (longer by a factor of about two). Our thesis is that these two distinctive features of humans are products of coevolutionary selection. The large human brain is an investment with initial costs and later rewards, which coevolved with increased energy allocations to …
Evolution and Human Nature
This paper considers how biological evolution shaped the elements of a simple but complete model of economic decision making. These elements are preferences, beliefs and rationality. Whereas Nature might impose preferences over consumption on the individual, Nature might optimally allow beliefs to be influenced by local knowledge and final choice to be flexible. This reinforces the usual approach. On the one hand, evolution also suggests that som…
Complex Evolutionary Systems and the Red Queen
Some of the most obvious complex adaptive systems are biological. A key concern in biology is how the overall properties of systems relate to the behaviour of their components. Competition between these components in the form of an arms race, the 'Red Queen effect', helps explain the trend towards more complex organisms. This effect helps explain why these biological systems became and remained complex. It may well also have driven the most disti…
Why Sex? and Why Only in Pairs
Understanding the purpose of sex is a fundamental unresolved problem in evolutionary biology. The difficulty is not that there are too few theories of sex, the difficulty is that there are too many and none stand out. To distinguish between theories, we ask: Why are there no triparental species with offspring composed of the genetic material of three individuals? A successful theory should confer an advantage to biparental sex over asexual reprod…
Economics (7 works) · Microeconomics (5 works) · Biology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (4 works) · Business (3 works) · Ecology (3 works) · Evolutionary biology (3 works) · Housing Market and Economics (3 works) · Artificial Intelligence (2 works)