Social economics : market behavior in a social environment

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Social economics : market behavior in a social environment

Gary S. Becker, Kevin M. Murphy

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000

  • : pbk

Available at  / 56 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. [159]-164

Includes indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780674003378

Description

Economists assume that people make choices based on their preferences and their budget constraints. The preferences and values of others play no role in the standard economic model. This feature has been sharply criticized by other social scientists, who believe that the choices people make are also conditiond by social and cultural forces. Economists, meanwhile, are not satisfied with standard sociological and anthropological concepts and explanations because they are not embedded in a testable, analytic framework. In this book, Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy provide such a framework by including the social environment along with standard goods and services in their utility functions. These extended utility functions provide a way of analyzing how changes in the social environment affect people's choices and behaviours. More important, they also provide a way of analyzing how the social environment itself is determined by the interactions of individuals. Using this approach, the authors are able to explain many puzzling phenomena, including patterns of drug use, how love affects marriage patterns, neighbourhood segregation, the prices of fine art and other collectibles, the social side of trademarks, the rise and fall of facts and fashions, and the distribution of income and status.
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780674011212

Description

Economists assume that people make choices based on their preferences and their budget constraints. The preferences and values of others play no role in the standard economic model. This feature has been sharply criticized by other social scientists, who believe that the choices people make are also conditioned by social and cultural forces. Economists, meanwhile, are not satisfied with standard sociological and anthropological concepts and explanations because they are not embedded in a testable, analytic framework. In this book, Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy provide such a framework by including the social environment along with standard goods and services in their utility functions. These extended utility functions provide a way of analyzing how changes in the social environment affect people's choices and behaviors. More important, they also provide a way of analyzing how the social environment itself is determined by the interactions of individuals. Using this approach, the authors are able to explain many puzzling phenomena, including patterns of drug use, how love affects marriage patterns, neighborhood segregation, the prices of fine art and other collectibles, the social side of trademarks, the rise and fall of fads and fashions, and the distribution of income and status.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Part I The Effect of Social Capital on Market Behavior 1. The Importance of Social Interactions 2. Social Forces, Preferences, and Complementarity 3. Are Choices "Rational" When Social Capital Is Important? Part II The Formation of Social Capital 4. Sorting by Marriage 5. Segregation and Integration in Neighborhoods 6. The Social Market for the Great Masters and Other Collectibles with William Landes 7. Social Markets and the Escalation of Quality: The World of Veblen Revisited with Edward Glaeser 8. Status and Inequality with Ivan Werning Part III Fads, Fashions, and Norms 9. Fads and Fashion 10. The Formation of Norms and Values References Author Index Subject Index

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