Gift Giving and the Evolution of Cooperation

Gift giving is a practice common to many societies. In an evolutionary model the social custom of giving gifts at the beginning of a relationship can lead to trust and cooperation. The evolutionary approach makes predictions about the character of the goods that can be used as gifts. For example, gift goods may have little use value even at low levels of consumption. Although the gifts themselves are useless, the institution is not.

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Year of publication:	1997-01-01
Authors:	Carmichael, H. Lorne ; MacLeod, W. Bentley
Institutions:	Department of Economics, Boston College

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Extent:	application/pdf
Series:	Boston College Working Papers in Economics.
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Notes:	The text is part of a series Boston College Working Papers in Economics Number 338. 35 pages Classification- JEL:
Source:	RePEc - Research Papers in Economics

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005074189