Social Relations and Endogenous Culture

The current state of economics as a science is critically evaluated in view of its lack of emphasis on sociological and psychological factors. In particular, I argue that humans are embedded in social structures and that they choose actions taking account of the social contexts in which they live and the social interactions to which they belong. Preferences then should be considered not as exogenously given but as endogenously evolved, allowing for bounded rationality and psychological factors. I provide a brief sketch of the possible model formulation for a more desirable theory, invoking network theory and an indirect evolutionary approach.

[1]  A Proof of the Existence of Competitive Equilibrium in a Generation-Overlapping Exchange Economy with Money , 1981 .

[2]  I. Gilboa,et al.  Case-Based Decision Theory , 1995 .

[3]  On the Efficiency of a Competitive Equilibrium in Infinite Horizon Monetary Economies , 1980 .

[4]  D. Cass,et al.  The role of money in supporting the pareto optimality of competitive equilibrium in consumption-loan type models , 1979 .

[5]  Sten Nyberg,et al.  Social Norms and Economic Incentives in the Welfare State , 1999 .

[6]  R. Costanza,et al.  The evolution of preferences Why 'sovereign' preferences may not lead to sustainable policies and what to do about it , 1998 .

[7]  Andrew Postlewaite,et al.  Social Norms and Random Matching Games , 1995 .

[8]  K. Arrow,et al.  General Competitive Analysis , 1971 .

[9]  Mark S. Granovetter The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[10]  Itzhak Gilboa,et al.  A theory of case-based decisions , 2001 .

[11]  A. Greif Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies , 1994, Journal of Political Economy.

[12]  K. Matsuyama Complementarities and Cumulative Processes in Models of Monopolistic Competition , 1995 .

[13]  J. Montgomery Toward a Role‐Theoretic Conception of Embeddedness1 , 1998, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  Mark S. Granovetter T H E S T R E N G T H O F WEAK TIES: A NETWORK THEORY REVISITED , 1983 .

[15]  M. Okuno-Fujiwara On labor incentives and work norm in Japanese firms , 1989 .

[16]  Efe A. Ok,et al.  On the Evolution of Individualistic Preferences: An Incomplete Information Scenario , 2001, J. Econ. Theory.

[17]  青木 昌彦 Information, incentives, and bargaining in the Japanese economy , 1988 .

[18]  M. Jackson STABLE NETWORKS , 2000 .

[19]  Mark S. Granovetter Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  General equilibrium with money; Indeterminacy of price level and efficiency , 1976 .

[21]  Optimal steady-state in stationary consumption-loan type models , 1983 .

[22]  A. Schotter,et al.  Endogenous Preferences : The Cultural Consequences of Markets and other Economic Institutions , 1999 .

[23]  A. Lindbeck Hazardous Welfare-State Dynamics , 1995 .

[24]  M. Okuno-Fujiwara Interdependence of industries, coordination failure and strategic promotion of an industry , 1988 .

[25]  R. Brandis The Limits of Organization , 1975 .

[26]  Werner Güth,et al.  An evolutionary approach to explaining cooperative behavior by reciprocal incentives , 1995 .

[27]  M. Aoki Information, Incentives and Bargaining in the Japanese Economy: A Microtheory of the Japanese Economy , 1988 .

[28]  M. Rabin Psychology and Economics , 1997 .

[29]  L. Cosmides,et al.  The psychological foundations of culture. , 1992 .

[30]  Kenneth A. Frank,et al.  Linking Action to Social Structure within a System: Social Capital within and between Subgroups1 , 1998, American Journal of Sociology.

[31]  A. Lindbeck,et al.  Incentives and Social Norms in Household Behavior , 1997 .

[32]  D. Wrong,et al.  The over-socialized conception of man in modern sociology. , 1961, Psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic review.

[33]  Matthew O. Jackson,et al.  The Evolution of Social and Economic Networks , 2002, J. Econ. Theory.

[34]  M. Okuno-Fujiwara Monitoring cost, agency relationships, and equilibrium modes of labor contracts , 1987 .

[35]  Industriens Utredningsinstitut,et al.  Welfare State Disincentives with Endogenous Habits and Norms , 2003 .

[36]  M. Jackson,et al.  A Strategic Model of Social and Economic Networks , 1996 .

[37]  L. Cosmides,et al.  The Adapted mind : evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture , 1992 .