Technological diffusion and preference learning in the world of Homo sustinens: The challenges for politics

This article relates agents' learning of a preference for a technology, competition of technologies, and their relative diffusion among potential adopters. Competitive interactions between two technologies are captured by an extended Lotka–Volterra model. To also incorporate preference learning on the part of potential adopters of these technologies, we combine it with a model of cultural learning based on role model, conformist, and hedonistic learning. Our theoretical analysis is illustrated by a concrete example: the competition between electric mobility and conventional forms of individual mobility. The model enables an evaluation of specific policy instruments as to the promotion of sustainable technology.