Social Consensus and Economic Behavior

Selim, Tarek and Salevurakis, John (2008): Social Consensus and Economic Behavior.

Abstract

Economics and sociology are immensely related. The relationship between economics and social behavior includes the impact of social consensus upon economic and distributional outcomes. We study the demand and supply mechanisms by which a social consensus is established, discuss how social consensus acts as a constraint on rational choice, and draw specific implications on economic and distributional efficiency. We also study when and under what conditions a social consensus is binding. Specifically, we derive comparative equilibrium conditions for entrepreneurship as a driver for innovation with and without a binding force of social consensus. Results ultimately contrast conventional neoclassical theory.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: social consensus, innovation, entrepreneurship, economic rationality, resistance to change
• Subjects: B - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches > B5 - Current Heterodox Approaches > B52 - Institutional ; Evolutionary; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D02 - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact; L - Industrial Organization > L2 - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior > L26 - Entrepreneurship; M - Business Administration and Business Economics ; Marketing ; Accounting ; Personnel Economics > M2 - Business Economics; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology

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