Reading Oscar Morgenstern's fascinating work on what constitutes proper economic research persuades me that he would have approved of the theme and approach of this book: economic methodology (seasoned with a little mathematics) applied to a study of the motives that underlie the behavior of agents as family members and as members of distinct groups.

Lectures published in this book not only address transfers but also, to a great extent, emanate from transfers. To begin with, all six lectures-turned-into-chapters benefited considerably from searching questions raised by colleagues and students who attended the lectures in Vienna. Chapter 1 owes much to the comments and suggestions of Kenneth J. Arrow, Gary S. Becker, Theodore C. Bergstrom, and Paul A. Samuelson. Chapter 2 is fully due to collaboration with Oded Galor. Chapter 3 is fully due to collaboration with Donald Cox, enriched by Richard Arnott, Gary S. Becker, Theodore C. Bergstrom, and Zvi Griliches. Chapter 4 owes a debt of gratitude to Donald Cox for his invaluable input. Chapter 5 is freer from ambiguity as a result of advice offered by Robert J. Aumann and Ian Molcho. Collaboration with Theodore C. Bergstrom gave rise to chapter 6, the refinement of which is due to comments by Carl Bergstrom, Gary S. Becker, Jack Hirshleifer, and Andreu Mas-Collel.

The conversion of lecture notes into a published volume can be – but was not – a joyless undertaking, because of the encouragement and support I received from Bernhard Felderer, the advice and help I received from Christian Helmenstein, and the dedicated and skillful assistance of Isabella Andrej, and Elinor Berg.