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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