American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
Kludged
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 3,
no. 3, August 2011
(pp. 210–31)
Abstract
Is there reason to believe that our brains have evolved to make efficient decisions so that the details of the internal process are irrelevant? I develop a model which illustrates a limitation of adaptive processes: improvements tend to come in the form of kludges. A kludge is a marginal adaptation that compensates for, but does not eliminate, fundamental design inefficiencies. When kludges accumulate, the result can be perpetually suboptimal behavior even in a model of evolution in which arbitrarily large innovations occur infinitely, often with probability 1. (JEL D03, D87)Citation
Ely, Jeffrey C. 2011. "Kludged." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 3 (3): 210–31. DOI: 10.1257/mic.3.3.210JEL Classification
- D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
- D87 Neuroeconomics
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