Maladaptation and global indeterminacy

Maladaptation and natural selection.

The transformations George Williams initiated in evolutionary biology seem so blindingly obvious in retrospect that they spur the question of why he saw what no one else did. While most humans are prone to see only what theory predicts, Williams sees in bold relief whatever does not fit. Not an adaptationist or an anti-adaptationist, Williams is better described as a maladaptionist. The challen...

Credit Market Imperfection, Labor Supply Complementarity, and Global Indeterminacy

The possibility of sunspot equilibria and endogenous cycles due to self-fulfilling expectations are explored in a one-sector overlapping-generations model with credit market imperfection. It is shown that a strategic complementarity between agent’s optimal labor supply decisions may arise when the credit market is imperfect. Multiplicity of steady states and local indeterminacy of equilibrium c...

Visual maladaptation in contrast domain

In this work we simulate the effect of the human eye’s maladaptation to visual perception over time through a supra–threshold contrast perception model that comprises adaptation mechanisms. Specifically, we attempt to visualize maladapted vision on a display device. Given the scene luminance, the model computes a measure of perceived multi–scale contrast by taking into account spatially and tem...

Is Strong Reciprocity a Maladaptation?

Intersectoral Externalities and Indeterminacy

We consider a two-sector economy with positive intersectoral external effects and nonincreasing social returns. We show that if the discount factor r is close to 1 then local indeterminacy may be obtained with mild market imperfections. Moreover, with additional conditions, when r is made smaller the steady state becomes totally unstable and quasi-periodic cycles, along which equilibrium paths ...