I'm curious about the understanding of economics as a subset of biology.
I'd like to read about the basis of economics starting from as low as posible, from unicelular life if posible, or at least analysis of economic activity on animals considering thinks like value, incentives, resources like food, and services like protection, sex, recolection of food, etc.
Any links, articles, book recomendations would we welcomed.
Mises talks a bit about it. He says humans are different from other living beings in two ways.
First. they have intelligence. The can make plans, as opposed to just reacting instinctively. This makes studying them that much more interesting, and makes some results that apply to animals inapplicable to people.
Second, they can help each other. For animals, each giraffe, say, on the planet means another mouth to feed, leaving that much less for every other girrafe. People, on the other hand, can do division of labor, which increases the supply of things for everyone.
My humble blog
It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
Matt Ridley goes into the comparison of humans and other species here..
And the science of economics is taken to its base in:
The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science
Human Action
Economic Science and the Austrian Method
Huh. One of my Professors actually dabbles on this topic, and he has sympathies for the Austrian tradition as well. I recommend the Journal of Bioeconomics if you're interested for more on the subject.
http://www.csun.edu/~hceco001/GiffordResearch.htm