Economics and Social Interaction Accounting for Interpersonal Relations

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.

First published in 2005, 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.

Preface; 1. Why interpersonal relations matter for economics Benedetto Gui and Robert Sugden; 2. From transactions to encounters: the joint generation of relational goods and conventional values Benedetto Gui; 3. Fellow-feeling Robert Sugden; 4. Interpersonal interaction and economic theory: the case of public goods Nicholas Bardsley; 5. Under trusting eyes. The response nature of trust Vittorio Pelligra; 6. Interpersonal relations and job satisfaction: some empirical results in social and community care services Carlo Borzaga and Sara Depedri; 7. On the possible conflict between economic growth and social development Pier Luigi Sacco, Angelo Antoci and Paolo Vanin; 8. The logic of good social relations Serge-Christophe Kolm; 9. The mutual validation of ends Shaun Hargreaves-Heap; 10. Hic sunt leones. Interpersonal relations as unexplored territory in the tradition of economics Luigino Bruni; 11. Authority and power in economic and sociological approaches to interpersonal relations: from interactions to embeddedness Bernard Gazier and Isabelle This Saint-Jean; 12. Interpersonal relations and economics: comments from a feminist perspective Julie A. Nelson; 13. Economics and interpersonal relations: ruling the social back in Louis Putterman; Index.

An important 2005 contribution to a growing research agenda that applies traditional economic concepts to the realm of interpersonal relationships. The authors combine analytical rigour with sensitivity to the insights of other social science traditions resulting in a book devoid of polemics that will attract a wide interdisciplinary readership.