Cover; Contents; List of Figures; Preface; 1 The Evolution of Economic Behaviour; Evolution by natural selection; Life history strategy; Kith and kin; Reciprocal altruism; Cultural evolution; Tool use and intelligence; Human evolution; Recent genetic changes; Human cultural evolution; The Neolithic revolution; Forms of exchange; Points to remember; 2 The Economic Behaviour of the Individual; A biological approach; The animal as an economic consumer; The supermarket analogy; Time and energy budgets in animals; Animal and human economics; Problems with microeconomics; Specific hungers
Points to remember3 Behavioural Economics; The experimental situation; The sterile environment; The captive animal; The real world; Animals in the real world; Humans in the real world; Hoarding and caching; The rationality muddle; Rational choice theory; Biological rationality; Points to remember; 4 The Biological Bases of Decision-Making; Decisions; Recapitulation; The biological view; Functional aspects of decision-making; Trade-off; "Voluntary" decisions; Introspection; The teleological imperative; Whither Homo economicus?; Points to remember; Glossary; Notes; Index
Summary
The micro-economic behaviour typical of humans is also found in other animals, suggesting that some basic biological features underpin the behaviour of many species, and that there are some problems with traditional micro-economic theory
