Mini Course on "The biological basis of economic preferences"

An in-person mini course exploring the biological basis of economic preferences open to research students and scholars across the university
About this Event

This in-person mini course is for research students and scholars from across the university interested in the biological basis of economic preferences. Prof Arthur Robson visiting us from Simon Fraser University and sponsored by the Kalman Foundation, will offer three sessions as part of this mini course, as follows:

• Thursday, 12 Nov 2026, 3-5pm, in room 260-223
• Friday, 13 Nov 2026, 11am-1pm & 3-5pm, in room 260-325

We will have a light lunch served on Friday, between 1pm and 3pm, on the Social Bridge, Level 6 of Sir OGGB. Attendees of the mini course are welcome to join lunch for free. RSVP, to confirm your attendance to the lunch by Fri, 6 Nov 2026, COB (this will assist us with finalising catering needs for the event).

Prof Robson will start by sketching a rationale for the evolution of time preference in hunter-gatherer societies. A rationale that applies even though such societies usually lacked the ability to save or borrow.

There is an alternative approach to the evolution of time preference that stems from sexual reproduction and we will apply this to the debate about global warming.

He will show that individuals might have evolved to have a greater aversion of aggregate risk than to comparable idiosyncratic risk and there is experimental evidence favoring this.

Finally, he will shift gears and consider the contribution that neuroscience can make to economics. He will describe the scientific basis for utility that is adaptive and possibly hedonic and discuss the empirical implications, including a preference for rising wage schedules.

TWO GENERAL REFERENCES

• Robson, A. J., and N. Robalino (in press) “Biological Foundations of Economic Behavior” in Handbook of Culture and Economic Behavior North-Holland. Available at http://www.sfu.ca/ robson/NH.
• Robson, A. and L. Samuelson (in press) The Evolutionary Origins of Preferences Econometric Society Monograph Series, Cambridge University Press.

EVOLUTION OF TIME PREFERENCE IN HUNTER GATHERERS

• Robson, A. J., and H. S. Kaplan (2006). “The Economics of Hunter-Gatherer Societies and the Evolution of Human Characteristics.” Canadian Journal of Economics 39(2):375–398.
• Robson, A. J. and L. Samuelson (2007). ”The Evolution of Intertemporal Preferences,” American Economic Review P&P 97, 496-500.
• Robson, A. J. and H. S. Kaplan (2003). “The Evolution of Human Life Expectancy and Intelligence in Hunter-Gatherer Economies.” American Economic Review, 93(11):150–169.
• Robson, A. J. and L. Samuelson (2009). ”The Evolution of Time Preference with Aggregate Uncertainty” American Economic Review, 99, 1925–53.

Prof Robson's Bio: Arthur John Robson is a Full Professor in the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University (SFU), a position he has held since 2003. He holds dual citizenship in New Zealand and Canada. He earned his B.Sc. with First Class Honours in Pure and Applied Mathematics from Victoria University of Wellington in 1968. He completed his Ph.D. In Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1974 where his thesis was supervised by Professor Robert M. Solow, after completing coursework for the Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics, also at MIT. Prior to his current role at SFU, Prof Robson was a long-standing faculty member at the University of Western Ontario, where he advanced from Assistant Professor to Full Professor between 1975 and 2003. At SFU, he notably held the Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution from 2003 to 2017 and served as a University Professor from 2017 to 2022. His primary research and teaching interests centre on the biological evolution of economic behaviour, game theory, and microeconomics. He has built an extensive and highly influential publication record spanning five decades, with over 80 papers establishing him as a pioneer in integrating evolutionary biology with economic theory. His work frequently appears in top-tier academic journals across economics and general science, focusing heavily on how biological evolution shapes human preferences, risk attitudes, and strategic behaviour. Prof Robson is highly decorated in his field. His notable accolades include: The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2011; The John Rae Prize in 2014 (awarded for the best research record by a Canadian economist over the preceding five years); Fellowships in several distinguished organizations, including the Canadian Economics Association (2018), the Game Theory Society (2017), the Royal Society of Canada (2009), and the Econometric Society (2007); The SFU Research Excellence Award in Social Sciences in 2024; The SFU Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2025.