Henry Luce Foundation
Supports Economics Research

12-22-97
University Park, Pa.-A three-year grant totaling $180,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation will help Penn State researchers apply the central ideas of evolution, mutation and natural selection to new investigations of social and economic behavior.

Robert C. Marshall, professor and head of the Department of Economics in the College of the Liberal Arts, will serve as principal investigator for the project. He and various other researchers will study evolution in relation to such socioeconomic topics as the origins of altruism, cultural differences in savings rates and the use of "rules of thumb" rather than true cost/benefit calculations during decision making.

"The ideals of evolution have been the dominate themes in biology and anthropology for many years, but we are just beginning to think what they mean for economics," Marshall said. "On the other hand, in recent years economics has been at the forefront in the advancement of game theory, which is an important analytic tool for understanding evolutionary issues. This project will bring together ideas from various disciplines, including psychology and mathematics as well as anthropology, evolutionary biology, economics and game theory."

Other faculty involved in the project include Vijay Krishna and Kaylan Chatterjee in economics, Austin Hughes in biology, and Jeffrey Kurland and Henry Harpending in anthropology. Portions of the grant will support graduate students who have an interest in the research. University funds totaling $150,000 will also support the overall project.

An opening conference dedicated to the topic is planned for late summer 1998, to be followed by a three-year series of consecutive interdisciplinary graduate courses. Guest lecturers and seminar and workshop leaders from other institutions will also visit Penn State as part of the activities allowed by the grant. A concluding conference in 2001 is expected to result in a volume of related research papers or special issues of appropriate journals featuring the output of the completed project.

"We hope that the real legacy of the grant will be an ongoing crosslisted graduate course between the departments of economics, biology and anthropology," Marshall said. "To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a project set up primarily to establish a permanent link among these departments."

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time magazine, as a tribute to his parents, the Reverend Dr. Henry Winters Luce and Elizabeth Root Luce. Headquartered in New York City, the foundation's interests fall into five categories: understanding between the peoples of Asia and the United States; higher education in America; the fine and decorative arts; theological education; and public affairs. Emphasis is placed on innovation and scholarship, and most programs actively involve academic institutions.

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Contact: Gary Cramer (814) 863-4512 (office) gwc104@psu.edu