The Quantitative Analysis of Economic Behavior With Laboratory Animals

Abstract

Studies of animal behavior in the laboratory provide an extensive data set on economic behavior under controlled and replicable conditions. In the studies reported, the food consumption of rodents and non-human primates was studied under a wide variety of conditions of work effort, commodity value, and substitute availability. The results conformed to a single underlying demand function that assumed that demand elasticity was linear in price. Price was defined as a cost-benefit ratio that included consideration of both the effort of the work and the value of the commodity purchased. The parameters of the elasticity equation appeared related to the amount and temporal proximity of a substitute food.

These data from non-human subjects have limitations for predicting human economic behavior. However, these data provide clear evidence that the basic principles of consumer demand theory can be observed in a primitive system. This suggests that the theory is “biological” in the sense that it does not depend on the “cultural” mechanisms of either verbal behavior or money.