The Theory of Reciprocity

Serge-Christophe Kolm
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Serge-Christophe Kolm: Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences

Chapter 5 in The Economics of Reciprocity, Giving and Altruism, 2000, pp 115-141 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract There are gifts, including any act purposefully favourable to someone else and which is neither forced nor bought. Someone who receives a gift often feels the urge or the envy to reciprocate with a return gift, thus establishing a classical ‘gift/return-gift’ relationship. The initial giver may then give again, and so on, and a gift can be both a return gift of previous gifts and a cause of future return gifts. Such relations are reciprocities, including the elementary gift/return-gift. Reciprocities commonly associate several types of sentiment and motivation, such as self-interest, fellow-feeling, induced or reciprocal altruism, moral indebtedness, gratitude, fairness, sense of balance, good social relations, sense of community, norm — and duty — following and ‘proper’ behaviour, and others’ opinion and pressure, in various possible proportions. Pure gift-giving can be seen as a borderline case where the return gift vanishes.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-62745-5_5

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