COMPETITION AND CULTURE IN THE EVOLUTION OF ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR: A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

Abstract

Competition tends to promote efficient (equilibrium) behavior through the higher survival of the organizations (say firms) that adopt it. On the other hand, culture (understood as the "inherited" social pattern of behavior) may induce certain short-run inertias. This paper analyzes a dynamic model of the struggle between these two forces in the evolution of alternative stable configurations of an economy's behavior.