Comment on Bergstrom

Authors

Alexander J. Field, Santa Clara UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2003

Publisher

American Economic Association

Abstract

This comment on a 2002 article by Theodore Bergstrom in the Journal of Economic Perspectives argues that group or multilevel selection in haystack models does not require assortative mating. If the various subgroups into which the population periodically divides are sufficiently small, random variation will assure that some groups have more altruists than others, and these groups will have more surviving offspring than others. Under conditions in which the subgroups are periodically repooled into a larger population, it is possible for altruists to increase over time in the general population even though they are declining (or not increasing) at all times in every subgroup.

Editor

Dinah Shelton

Comments

Copyright © 1984 by the American Economic Association.

Recommended Citation

Field, Alexander J. 2003. “Comment on Bergstrom,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 17 (Spring): 209-210.