Economics & Social Interaction

Economics and Social Interaction is a fresh attempt to overcome the traditional inability of economics to deal with interpersonal phenomena that occur within the sphere of markets and productive organizations. It makes use of traditional economic concepts for understanding interpersonal events, while venturing beyond those concepts to give a better account of personalised interactions. In contrast to other books, Economics and Social Interaction offers the reader a rigorous effort at extending economic analysis to a difficult field in a consistent manner, sensitive to insights from other behavioural and social sciences. This collection represents an important contribution to a growing research agenda in the social sciences. • The interaction between economics and human behaviour is a new and dynamic research agenda • Non-polemical • Interdisciplinary approach will interest broad range of social scientists'If you believe that the subject of interpersonal relations lies outside the domain of economics, this rich volume will persuade you otherwise. This is interdisciplinary scholarship at its best.' Robert H. Frank, Cornell University'For too long both the study of social interactions and the discipline of economics have been impoverished by a radical separation between these two fields of inquiry. In this important new volume Gui, Sugden, and the other contributors creatively explore many fundamental ways in which sociality and economics are linked. Their insights will be valuable for scholars across the social sciences.' Robert Putnam, Harvard University'Economics and Social Interaction is an excellent examination of the important idea that humans value social relations per se. It bridges the seemingly contradictory tenets of rational choice theory and the mechanisms behind social capital, altruism, and reciprocity. It establishes an exciting dialog between economics and sociology, and shows the directions where these interdisciplinary studies will lead.' Ernst Fehr, Director of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zürich