The impact of market innovations on the evolution of norms: the sustainability case

Stephan Müller () and Georg von Wangenheim
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Georg von Wangenheim: University of Kassel

MAGKS Papers on Economics from Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung)

Abstract: That institutions matter is widely accepted among economists and so are social norms as an important category of informal institutions. Social norms matter in many economic situations, but in particular for markets. The economic literature has studied the interrelation between markets and social norms in both directions – how social norms affect markets and how markets affect social norms. Starting from these two perspectives, we add to the literature, by suggesting a new link between product markets and the evolution of social norms: we analyze how the evolution of a social norm may be affected by a product innovation which adds to the variation of products with respect to their level of norm compliance. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for a) a positive impact of the innovation on the level of norm adoption and b) for multiplicity of norm equilibria. Finally we discuss policy implications.

Keywords: Consumer; Behavior; –; Social; Norms; –; Evolutionary; Economics; –; Sustainability; –; Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 D02 D11 Q01 Q55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-evo, nep-hme, nep-hpe, nep-ino and nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mar:magkse:201432

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