Roman Zakharenko Presented the Report on 'Endogenous Growth and Demographic Transition in a model of Cultural Transmission'

On March 22 a research seminar on political economy took place at HSE. Roman Zakharenko (HSE) spoke on 'Endogenous Growth and Demographic Transition in a model of Cultural Transmission'.

Abstract:

A demographic transition theory is developed which highlights changing cultural transmission patterns as a key driver of the phenomenon. The objective of individuals is to maximize cultural fitness, i.e. rate of absorbtion of own cultural type by future generations. With low population density, one’s culture can be picked by only by own children, thus cultural fitness equals genetic fitness, individuals allocate all energy surplus to reproduction, and the Malthusian regime occurs. With rising population density, cultural transmission between non-relatives becomes possible; knowledge production by an individual makes her cultural type more attractive. Individuals reallocate some of energy surplus from reproduction to knowledge production, which causes technological growth. The model is shown to fit the observed patterns of the demographic transition.