Social Identity Strategies in Recent Economics

John Bryan Davis ()

No 05-078/2, Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute

Abstract: This paper reviews three distinct strategies in recent economics for using the concept of social identity in the explanation of individual behavior: Akerlof and Kranton’s neoclassical approach, Sen’s commitment approach, and Kirman et al.’s complexity approach. The primary focus is the multiple selves problem and the difficulties associated with failing to explain social identity and personal identity together. The argument of the paper is that too narrow a scope for reflexivity in individual decision-making renders the problem intractable, but that enlarging this scope makes it possible to explain personal and social identity together in connection with an individual behavior termed comparative value-objective evaluation. The paper concludes with recommendations for treating the individual objective function as a production function.

Keywords: identity; personal identity; reflexivity; individual objective function (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D63 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-hpe, nep-pke and nep-soc
Date: Written 2005-08-10
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tinbergen.nl/discussionpapers/05078.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Social Identity Strategies in Recent Economics (2005)
Journal Article: Social identity strategies in recent economics (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers from Tinbergen Institute
Series data maintained by Walther Schoonenberg ().