THE REVENGE OF HOMO-ECONOMICUS - CONTESTED EXCHANGE AND THE REVIVAL OF POLITICAL-ECONOMY
THE REVENGE OF HOMO-ECONOMICUS - CONTESTED EXCHANGE AND THE REVIVAL OF POLITICAL-ECONOMY
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DOI：
10.1257/jep.7.1.83
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发表时间：
1993-12-01
影响因子：
8.4
通讯作者：
GINTIS, H
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
BOWLES, S;GINTIS, H
微观经济学理论的最新发展表明，新古典主义理论背后的自利行为被人为地截断了：它描绘了一个迷人的维多利亚时代但乌托邦的世界，在这个世界里，冲突比比皆是，但握手就是握手。但握手并不总是握手。委托代理分析、信息经济学、激进政治经济学、机制设计和交易成本经济学的研究都集中在监管和执行市场交换的实际过程中所涉及的困难。抛弃维多利亚时代的新古典主义理论，将把经济学家重新引向他们职业中的一个更古老的概念：曾经被称为政治经济学的东西。通过更认真地对待优化，后瓦尔拉斯主义经济学激发了一场经济思想革命，培育了新的理论分歧和对资本主义经济的替代概念。我们将提供我们自己对这一文献的解释，重点放在一个广为人知的事实上，即由交换产生的条款通常不能在交换各方零成本的情况下执行。如果所提供的货物或服务的某些方面既对买受人有价值，又提供成本高，则由于没有第三方强制执行债权，就会产生内生强制执行战略。我们将这种关系称为“有争议的交换”，因为与瓦拉斯主义经济学的交易不同，交易各方从交易中获得的利益取决于他们自己执行相互竞争的债权的能力。
Recent developments in microeconomic theory have shown that the self-interested behavior underlying neoclassical theory is artificially truncated: it depicts a charmingly Victorian but Utopian world in which conflicts abound but a handshake is a handshake. But a handshake is not always a handshake. Studies of principal-agent analysis, the economics of information, radical political economy, mechanism design, and transactions cost economics have all focused on the difficulties involved in policing and enforcing the actual process of market exchange. Abandoning the Victorian world of neoclassical theory will redirect economists to an older conception of their profession: what once was called political economy. By taking optimizing more seriously, post-Walrasian economics has inspired a revolution in economic thought fostering both new theoretical departures and alternative conceptions of the capitalist economy. We will offer our own interpretation of this literature, focusing on the widely recognized fact that the terms arising from exchange are not generally enforceable at zero cost to the exchanging parties. Where some aspect of the good or service supplied is both valuable to the buyer and costly to provide, the absence of third-party enforcement of claims gives rise to endogenous enforcement strategies. We refer to this relationship as a "contested exchange" because, unlike the transactions of Walrasian economics, the benefit the parties derive from the transaction depends on their own capacities to enforce competing claims.