A Kantian-economic approach to altruism in the household

Mark D White
Additional contact information
Mark D White: Department of Philosophy, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, Staten Island, NY, USA (e-mail: profmdwhite@hotmail.com)

Palgrave Communications, 2015, vol. 1, issue palcomms20155, 15005-

Abstract: Economists who study the family acknowledge the importance of altruism and resource allocation that occurs between family members, and have developed a number of novel approaches to modelling this behaviour. This article suggests a new method, based on the moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant, which will highlight several unique features of intrafamily altruism. After summarizing Kant’s ethics and how it can be incorporated into the standard economic model of choice, I show how Kantian concepts of perfect and imperfect duty cast the standard models of intrafamily altruism and resource allocation in a new light. The inclusion of duty into the modelling explains how altruistic behaviour can continue when the affection has left a marriage, and blurs the lines between cooperative and non-cooperative models of resource allocation by highlighting the importance of binding commitment without external enforcement.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/2015/palcomms20155/pdf/palcomms20155.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/2015/palcomms20155/full/palcomms20155.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:2015:y:2015:i:palcomms20155:p:15005-

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().