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Social‐Self‐Interest
Author(s) -
ASH Colin
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
annals of public and cooperative economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.526
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-8292
pISSN - 1370-4788
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8292.00142
Subject(s) - sociality , scope (computer science) , phenomenon , consumption (sociology) , value (mathematics) , positive economics , social phenomenon , economics , microeconomics , computer science , sociology , epistemology , social science , ecology , philosophy , machine learning , biology , programming language
This paper is about rational sociality. Retaining rational choice as its basic framework, it aims to enrich it by taking seriously a well‐established cultural, social and psychological phenomenon: that some inter‐personal relationships have intrinsic value. These are termed primary. Utility maximisation includes the binary choice to enter or not to enter a primary relationship: this on the one hand has a direct impact on utility, and on the other imposes restrictions on consumption choices. The model encompasses standard economic choice theory as a special case, while explicitly recognising that self‐interested agents make choices that are sometimes group dependent. The broad scope of this approach is illustrated by a number of extensions and applications, some of which lead to distinctly unorthodox conclusions.