Economics of Reciprocity, Giving and Altruism

Reciprocity is a pervasive type of social interaction in encounters, groups and organizations. Simple giving is one of the major ways of transferring goods. And others regarding social sentiments, play crucial roles in the working and in the quality of society. This volume gathers basic recent works in its main domains such as, among others, the theory of reciprocity, the public economics of transfers, the economics of the family, charities, gifts of organs, or the motivations for gift-giving. It constitutes a landmark in this rapidly expanding field of research.

• economics
• efficiency
• equilibrium
• policy
• poverty

JEAN MERCIER YTHIER is maître de conférences at the University of Paris La Sorbonne, and teaches at the University of Marseille. His works analyse benevolent redistribution in the contexts of general equilibrium and social contract theories. His most recent publications in English are The Distribution of Wealth in the Liberal Social Contract, and Existence of an Equilibrium of Property Rights.

SERGE-CHRISTOPHE KOLM is director and professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Paris. He is the author of thirty books and several hundred scientific articles in economics and related fields. This includes the book on General Reciprocity (The Good Economy). His two most recent books, in English, are Modern Theories of Justice and Justice and Equity.

LOUIS-ANDRÉ GÉRARD-VARET is professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Marseille, director of the Groupement de Recherche en Economie Quantitative, of the Institut d'Economics Publique, co-director of the European Laboratory in Quantitative Economics and Theory of Choice, and current president of the French Economic Association. His most recent book is Economics Beyond the Millennium.

Policies and ethics