The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly

<p dir="ltr">Friendship‐and‐love affords bonding that satisfies what can be called “transcendental preferences”—in contradistinction of “substantive preferences” afforded by, for example, food, clothes, and shelter. Substantive preferences involve ordinary “substantive cost,” whereas...

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التفاصيل البيبلوغرافية
المؤلف الرئيسي: Elias L. Khalil (20518877) (author)
منشور في: 2023
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author Elias L. Khalil (20518877)
author_facet Elias L. Khalil (20518877)
author_role author
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Elias L. Khalil (20518877)
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2023-08-30T03:00:00Z
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv 10.1111/kykl.12355
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_cost_of_love_Solving_the_gift_anomaly/25249159
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv CC BY 4.0
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Policy and administration
Social work
Sociology
Philosophy and religious studies
Applied ethics
Philosophy
Gift anomaly
Substantive cost
Emotional cost
Commodification taboo
Rational choice theory
Budget constraint
Neoclassical economics critique
Repugnant transactions
Endowment effect
Behavioral economics
Altruism vs love
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Text
Journal contribution
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
text
contribution to journal
description <p dir="ltr">Friendship‐and‐love affords bonding that satisfies what can be called “transcendental preferences”—in contradistinction of “substantive preferences” afforded by, for example, food, clothes, and shelter. Substantive preferences involve ordinary “substantive cost,” whereas transcendental preferences involve “bonding cost” that includes heartaches, obsession, and emotional turmoil. What about the cost of gifts such as flowers, time, and other carriers of friendship‐and‐love? The greater is the expenditure on gifts, the greater the bonding cost. This paper investigates the following question: How should we model bonding cost, which includes the cost of gift, in relation to substantive cost? Given bonding cost and substantive cost share the same budget, neoclassical economists treat them as commensurable and, hence, transcendental and substantive preferences make up a unidimensional objective function. This treatment, however, originates the “gift anomaly”: If people easily substitute between the two genera of preferences, why do they consider the demand of payments for visiting their grandmothers—or payments for voting and sexual intercourse—as repugnant (taboo)? To solve the gift anomaly, this paper is critical of the standard economist's entry point. This paper proposes bonding and substantive costs as incommensurable and, corollary, transcendental and substantive preferences as incommensurable as well. This paper further shows how, without undermining the incommensurability thesis, the incommensurability is up to a limit: the two genera of costs and, corollary, the two genera of preferences are still linked via the income effect—as opposed to the substitution effect.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Kyklos<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12355" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12355</a></p>
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spelling The cost of love: Solving the gift anomalyElias L. Khalil (20518877)EconomicsApplied economicsHuman societyPolicy and administrationSocial workSociologyPhilosophy and religious studiesApplied ethicsPhilosophyGift anomalySubstantive costEmotional costCommodification tabooRational choice theoryBudget constraintNeoclassical economics critiqueRepugnant transactionsEndowment effectBehavioral economicsAltruism vs love<p dir="ltr">Friendship‐and‐love affords bonding that satisfies what can be called “transcendental preferences”—in contradistinction of “substantive preferences” afforded by, for example, food, clothes, and shelter. Substantive preferences involve ordinary “substantive cost,” whereas transcendental preferences involve “bonding cost” that includes heartaches, obsession, and emotional turmoil. What about the cost of gifts such as flowers, time, and other carriers of friendship‐and‐love? The greater is the expenditure on gifts, the greater the bonding cost. This paper investigates the following question: How should we model bonding cost, which includes the cost of gift, in relation to substantive cost? Given bonding cost and substantive cost share the same budget, neoclassical economists treat them as commensurable and, hence, transcendental and substantive preferences make up a unidimensional objective function. This treatment, however, originates the “gift anomaly”: If people easily substitute between the two genera of preferences, why do they consider the demand of payments for visiting their grandmothers—or payments for voting and sexual intercourse—as repugnant (taboo)? To solve the gift anomaly, this paper is critical of the standard economist's entry point. This paper proposes bonding and substantive costs as incommensurable and, corollary, transcendental and substantive preferences as incommensurable as well. This paper further shows how, without undermining the incommensurability thesis, the incommensurability is up to a limit: the two genera of costs and, corollary, the two genera of preferences are still linked via the income effect—as opposed to the substitution effect.</p><h2>Other Information</h2><p dir="ltr">Published in: Kyklos<br>License: <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</a><br>See article on publisher's website: <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12355" target="_blank">https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/kykl.12355</a></p>2023-08-30T03:00:00ZTextJournal contributioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersiontextcontribution to journal10.1111/kykl.12355https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/The_cost_of_love_Solving_the_gift_anomaly/25249159CC BY 4.0info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:figshare.com:article/252491592023-08-30T03:00:00Z
spellingShingle The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
Elias L. Khalil (20518877)
Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Policy and administration
Social work
Sociology
Philosophy and religious studies
Applied ethics
Philosophy
Gift anomaly
Substantive cost
Emotional cost
Commodification taboo
Rational choice theory
Budget constraint
Neoclassical economics critique
Repugnant transactions
Endowment effect
Behavioral economics
Altruism vs love
status_str publishedVersion
title The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
title_full The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
title_fullStr The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
title_full_unstemmed The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
title_short The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
title_sort The cost of love: Solving the gift anomaly
topic Economics
Applied economics
Human society
Policy and administration
Social work
Sociology
Philosophy and religious studies
Applied ethics
Philosophy
Gift anomaly
Substantive cost
Emotional cost
Commodification taboo
Rational choice theory
Budget constraint
Neoclassical economics critique
Repugnant transactions
Endowment effect
Behavioral economics
Altruism vs love