Tim Johnson — The Golden Rule

Finance and philosophy.

Money, Maths and Magic
The Golden Rule
Tim Johnson | Lecturer (associate professor) in the Department of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Neil Wilson — How Basic Income is provided under a Job Guarantee

If you believe in the concept, make a tax deductible charity contribution, pay people and you’re there.

Modern Money Matters
How Basic Income is provided under a Job Guarantee
Neil Wilson

New Deal Democrat — How "the Ultimatum Game" explains the Populist backlash to Globalism

In the Ultimatum Game, one player is given $100 with complete discretion as to how much to share with a second player, whose only power is to accept or reject the division. While a strictly rational economic player would accept even a $1 share, in real life most people reject any share under $30. In so doing they harm themselves, but inflict even more harm on the greedy player, enforcing altrusim over the longer term.

Rationality is not a simple as economists make it out to be because interests not merely economic. Moreover, interest involves not only reason but morals, involving sentiment. As contemporary cognitive-affective research shows, cognition is joined at the neurological level with affect, that is, reason with feeling.

"In so doing they harm themselves, but inflict even more harm on the greedy player, enforcing altrusim over the longer term."

This behavior is observed in primates, for example, suggesting that it is an evolutionary trait. Social animals depend on "morals" to function together as units, beginning with the family, since this requires in-group coordination as well as competition. Free riding is discouraged (punished) at much lower levels. The issue is not so much altruism as a choice as much as reciprocity as a requirement.

I do think Brexit and, to a lesser extent, the nomination of Donald Trump by the GOP are watershed moments, where the elites in powerful Western nations have been suddenly and utterly swept aside. I expect this to be a dominant theme in politics over the next 10 years or more, as the neoliberal centrist consensus is destroyed and the left and right offer competing visions of a New Deal 2.0 vs. neofascism to replace it.

Angry Bear
How "the Ultimatum Game" explains the Populist backlash to Globalism

New Deal Democrat

Tim Johnson on ethics and finance

This research question addresses an issue moral philosophy: what is the relationship between ethics and the structure of the polis and is motivated by themes in Pragmatic philosophy, in particular the hypothesis reciprocity emerges as a social norm to enable resilient and effective communities were exchange is important. The different commercial cultures can be seen as representing points on a spectrum of commercial attitudes and in cultures where there are low interest rates the hypothesis is that there will be greater homophily between the agents in the network, and this will create more resilient and effective financial networks. The research will aim to inform regulators of any intrinsic merits with emerging financial mechanisms, particularly crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending, particularly as there is concern that the regulators will stifle the democratisation of finance.

Magic, Maths, and Money — The Relationship between Science and Finance
New Year's Resolutions
Tim Johnson | Lecturer in Financial Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Tim Johnson — Individuality and reciprocity

Philip Pilkington has written a piece about the problem with individualism and myths, a topic I have written on also. While I agree with the bulk of what he has to say, and I offer some of my own comments (these are taken from a paper in review, a copy is available on request) in what follows, I feel he misses the true culprits in criticising Adam Smith.

Magic, Maths, and Money — The relationship between science and finance
Individuality and reciprocity
Tim Johnson — Academic Fellow in the Department of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics at Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh

I just happened on Tim Johnson's blog. Very interesting indeed. He has some very thought provoking posts that I'll have to take a look at. He has an impressive breadth and depth of knowledge.

Chris Dillow — The Power Of Prosocial Motivation

Chris Dillow reports on scientific research on reciprocity as a motivator. This study suggests that reciprocity is a more powerful motivator than narrow self-interest.

What this research does do, though, is further undermine the notion that high-powered selfish incentives are the best way of motivating people. This belief probably rests more upon a desire to justify inequality than it does upon a basis of empirical evidence.

Read it at Stumbling and Mumbling — An extremist, not a fanatic
The Power Of Prosocial Motivation

Chris Dillow | "Economist, Marxist, cook, bluegrass guitarist"
His "day job" is writing for Investors Chronicle (UK)

(h/t Mark Thoma)

Not surprisingly this kind of behavior is found far down the evolutionary chain because the ability and propensity to coordinate favors adaptability rate, as Roger Erickson would say.

Review: A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution— Samuel Bowles And Herbert Gintis

A prescription for how human cooperation evolved will provoke much-needed debate about the origins of society

Read it at Nature

Not so selfish
by Peter Richerson