Competition, Cooperation, and Choice

Economic approach to leadership examines how individuals come together in social settings (a market place, an organization, a political entity) to make distributive decisions. Particular focus on Adam Smith's analysis of the development of modern industrial society and on important policy debates about slavery, the franchise and eugenics. Consideration of Smithian insights applied to contemporary game theoretic and experimental research on the emergence of cooperative behavior in settings where individual interests sometimes conflict with the interest of the group (or society). Special attention to public goods games and institutional frameworks that facilitate cooperation in a repeated prisoner's dilemma setting: competition, repetition, punishment, and reciprocity. Primary focus ethical.