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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Selected Works

Gifts

Economics

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Gift Giving And The Creation Of Trust, Martin Mathews Jan 2010

Gift Giving And The Creation Of Trust, Martin Mathews

Martin Mathews

We examine the role that gift giving plays in industrial districts and in particular the role of gift giving in the creation of inter-organisational trust. Inter-organisational exchanges in a mature industrial district are analyzed using Mauss’ theoretical framework of gift-giving, receiving and counter-giving. Actors in embedded network relationships frequently exchange gifts and favours. This gift giving is a fundamental part of the relationship. Gift giving is found to be instrumental in creating and maintaining relationships, defining group and individual identity and resolving conflicts. The originality of our findings lies in the fact that despite the ideology of the purely altruistic …


Interrelated Consumer Preference And Voluntary Exchange, Ted Bergstrom Feb 1971

Interrelated Consumer Preference And Voluntary Exchange, Ted Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

This paper presents a model of interrelated preferences for pairs of individuals. It investigates the possibility of an equilibrium with voluntary transactions. It identifies the puzzling case of two people who disagree because each wants the other to have the better part and shows that if this is assumed away, then there exists a competitive equilibrium with voluntary bilateral gifts.


A Scandinavian Consensus Solution For Efficient Income Distribution Among Nonmalevolent Consumers, Ted Bergstrom Nov 1970

A Scandinavian Consensus Solution For Efficient Income Distribution Among Nonmalevolent Consumers, Ted Bergstrom

Ted C Bergstrom

If Persons A and B are both benevolent to C, then a gift from A to C also benefits B. Thus C's income is like a public good to A and B. What happens with lots of people whose affections are entangled? This paper shows that a "distributional Lindahl equilibrium" exists and leads to an efficient income redistribution.