Respect

Manning, Alan ORCID: 0000-0002-7884-3580 (2007) Respect. CEPDP (793). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK. ISBN 9780853281696

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Abstract

Becker (1974) introduced to modern economics the idea that others care about what others think about them and derived many useful insights from this assumption. But he did not provide a very complete description of the general equilibrium of an economy in which people both demand respect from and supply respect to others. This paper analyzes the equilibrium price of respect, showing how it depends on the distribution of material endowments and discussing whether we would expect that, as society gets richer, the market for respect becomes more or less important. It explains why a demand for respect is a human universal in terms of Becker’s observation that this helps to provide insurance where markets are absent. Although the demand for respect is universal, the activities that command respect have enormous cultural diversity – the paper explains how there can be many Nash equilibria if respect is withheld from those who violate prescribed behaviour. Finally the paper discusses where, in a modern economy, respect is demanded and supplied arguing it is primarily bundled up with other goods and services because of the nature of the costs of supplying it.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk
Additional Information:	© 2007 Alan Manning
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance Economics
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare; Basic Needs; Living Standards; Quality of Life; Happiness D - Microeconomics > D5 - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium > D51 - Exchange and Production Economies
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2008 10:41
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 18:48
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/19722

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