Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The formation and evolution of social norms and values
- Part II The generation and transmission of values in families and communities
- Part III Social norms and culture
- Part IV The organization of work, trust, and incentives
- Part V Markets, values, and welfare
- Epilogue
- Index
Foreword
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- List of contributors
- Introduction
- Part I The formation and evolution of social norms and values
- Part II The generation and transmission of values in families and communities
- Part III Social norms and culture
- Part IV The organization of work, trust, and incentives
- Part V Markets, values, and welfare
- Epilogue
- Index
Summary
In Shakespeare's King John, the Bastard ridicules the narrowly self-interested behavior of his fellow royalty: “Since kings break faith upon commodity, / Gain, be my lord, for I will worship thee.” Shakespeare evidently thought that people could behave in other – nicer – ways, and many of his characters (indeed most of them) give evidence of having a variety of norms and values.
In contrast, many economic models tend to proceed as if the assumption of universal pursuit of self-interest is the only motivation that can be legitimately presumed in serious economic analysis. In this imagined world, the homo economicus has, it would appear, not only taken over from the Neanderthals, but has turned everyone, in the Bastard's words, into “smooth-faced gentlemen, tickling commodity.”
Why the near-ubiquity of this assumption? Are economists not aware of other motivations, other concerns that human beings have? The editors of this illuminating and innovative collection of papers (Avner Ben-Ner and Louis Putterman) argue that we economists know more than we betray in our formal writings. In motivating the project, the editors mention that they had been struck by the fact that “norms, values, and the effects on these of historical processes are frequently mentioned” by academic economists in informal discussions (for example, “in casual conversations over meals”). But Ben-Ner and Putterman are also struck by the recognition that these issues tend to be “absent from the formal analyses” of economists. It is not that economists do not know about – or take an interest in – matters of values and norms.
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- Information
- Economics, Values, and Organization , pp. vii - xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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