TY  - JOUR
AU  - Becker,Gary S.
TI  - A Theory of Social Interactions
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 42
PY  - 1974
Y2  - June 1974
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0042
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w0042.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gary Becker
Department of Economics
University of Chicago
1126 East 59th Street
Chicago, IL   60637
Tel: 312/702-8254
E-Mail: gbecker@uchicago.edu
M1  - published as Becker, Gary S. "A Theory of Social Interactions." Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 82, No. 6, (December 1974), pp. 1063-1093.
AB  - This essay incorporates a general treatment of social interactions into the modern theory of consumer demand. Section 1 introduces the topic and explores some of the existing perspectives on social interactions and their importance in the basic structure of wants.  In Section 2, various characteristics of different persons are assumed to affect the utility functions of some persons, and the behavioral implications are systematically explored. Section 3 develops further implications and applications in the context of analyzing intra-family relations, charitable behavior, merit goods and multi-persons interactions, and envy and hatred. The variety and significance of these applications is persuasive testimony not only to the importance of social interactions, but also to the feasibility of incorporating them into a rigorous analysis.
ER  -