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Discussion Paper Details

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Title: The Origin of Utility

Author(s): Gianni De Fraja

Publication Date: October 2006

Keyword(s): Darwin, natural selection, sexual selection and utility

Programme Area(s): Public Economics

Abstract: This paper proposes an explanation for the universal human desire for increasing consumption. It holds that it was moulded in evolutionary times by a mechanism known to biologists as sexual selection, whereby a certain trait - observable consumption - is used by members of one sex to signal their unobservable characteristics valuable to members of the opposite sex. It then goes on to show that the standard economics problem of utility maximisation is formally equivalent to the standard biology problem of the maximisation of individual fitness, the ability to pass genes to future generations.

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Bibliographic Reference

De Fraja, G. 2006. 'The Origin of Utility'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=5859