@article{article_9435, title={ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES ON CULTURAL EVOLUTION: ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS AND EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL NORMS}, journal={İstanbul Üniversitesi İktisat Fakültesi Mecmuası}, volume={57}, pages={27–48}, year={2012}, author={Birdal, Murat}, keywords={ECONOMIC, PERSPECTIVES, CULTURAL}, abstract={<p>Recent game theoretical studies illustrate that mutual trust among people is
what a society needs to be able to sustain a market order on a long-term basis and
at reasonable transaction costs. In this context, social norms play a crucial role in
the evolution of the economic structure, On the other hand, the evolution of the
market structure and other economic institutions means something more than
simply a change in the ways of allocation of goods and resources and has a
profound effect on social norms and values that form our preferences. In this
paper, by drawing on the game theory literature, we first explore the role played
by social norms and generalized morality in the expansion of markets. Secondly,
by using the endogenous preferences model, we discuss how these social norms
can be influenced by the evolution of the economic structure. The last part of the
paper is a case study on conversion to Islam in Sub Saharan Africa, in which we
test the relevance of our theoretical arguments. <br /> </p>}, number={2}, publisher={Istanbul University}