Rationalizability and interactivity in evolutionary OLG models (Q2637843)

Evolutionary overlapping generations (OLG) models have become widespread in growth theory, since these allow for a modelling of the dynamics of heterogeneity, which has been shown to be crucial for the understanding various phenomena, such as the birth of economic growth [\textit{O. Galor} and \textit{O. Moav}, Q. J. Econ. 117, No. 4, 1133--1191 (2002; Zbl 1038.91069)], the demographic transition [\textit{O. Galor} and \textit{O. Moav}, ``Natural selection and the evolution of life expectancy'', Working paper (2005; \url{doi:10.2139/ssrn.563741})], and the dynamics of religions and marriage [\textit{A. Bisin}, \textit{G. Topa} and \textit{T. Verdier}, ``Religious intermarriage and socialization in the United States'', J. Political Economy 112, No. 3, 615--665 (2004), \url{http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/383101}]. The goal of this paper was to propose a framework to study the properties of the evolutionary processes at work in those models. From the introduction: This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the framework, and defines two properties of evolutionary processes: rationalizability by a fitness ordering and interactivity. Section 3 demonstrates the non-existence of a rationalizable interactive evolutionary process. Section 4 reviews \(n\)-type version of Galor and Moav [2002, loc. cit.] and \textit{A. Bisin} and \textit{T. Verdier} [J. Econ. Theory 97, No. 2, 298--319 (2001; Zbl 0991.91060)], and examine whether the associated evolutionary process satisfy rationalizability or interactivity. Section 5 concludes.