2026/01/01 by Eduardo Coltre Ferraciolli, Francesco Renzini, Tanya Araújo +3 · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Culture, Economy, and Development Studies #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Political Economy and Marxism
paper · doi:10.1177/10434631261445825
openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/05/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/11
St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226) famously called money the devil's dung, and indeed money is often associated with greed, inequality, and corruption. Drawing on Nowak's five rules for the evolution of cooperation, we argue here that money promotes the formation of circuits of generalized reciprocity across human groups that are fundamental to social evolution. In an evolutionary tournament, we show that money exchange is an evolutionarily stable strategy that promotes cooperation without relying on the cognitive demands of direct reciprocity or reputation mechanisms. However, we also find that excessive liquidity can be detrimental because it can distort the informational value of money as a signal of past cooperation, making defection more profitable. Our results suggest that, in addition to institutions that promoted trust and punishment, the emergence of institutions that regulated the money supply was key to maintaining generalized reciprocity within and across human groups.