Description
Book SynopsisThe authors offer an analytic framework for measuring how people make choices, including social environment with standard goods and services in their utility functions. These functions enable analysis of how changes in social environment affect choice, and provide a way of analyzing how social environment is determined by individuals' interactions.
Trade Review[Becker and Murphy] are pioneers in the quest to extend the boundaries of rational choice theory in economics… They depict human beings not as isolated individuals but as members of society, shaped by social and cultural forces… This book marks another step in bringing economic theory closer to social reality. -- David Throsby * Times Literary Supplement *
This fascinating short book seeks to advance a ‘social economics’ field that would tackle such interpersonal issues head-on. It does so by addressing a diverse set of issues that includes social capital, habits and social interactions, sorting and marriage markets, segregation and integration of neighborhoods, escalation in product quality, status and inequality, and the modeling of fashions, norms, and values. -- Stephen R. G. Jones * Journal of Economic Literature *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments 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
