Social Identity Strategies in Recent Economics

Arbeitspapier

This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton’s neoclassical approach, Sen’s commitment approach, and Kirman et al.’s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decision-making renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior termed comparative value-objective evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for treating the individual objective function as a production function.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper ; No. 05-078/2

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement ; Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
• Subject: identity ; personal identity ; reflexivity ; individual objective function ; Wohlfahrtstheorie ; Soziale Norm ; Normative Ökonomik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Davis, John B.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Tinbergen Institute
• (where): Amsterdam and Rotterdam
• (when): 2005

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/86212
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET