Abstract

Economic Perspectives call attention to a problem which has plagued economics from the very beginning: Does human sociality play a role in economic behavior or is it strictly human individuality which is the proper domain of economic science? Indeed, Wealth of Nations embraces human individuality while Theory of Moral Sentiments opts for human sociality. The placement of these articles back to back strongly suggests that the board of editors of the Journal of Economic Perspectives share some concern that perhaps all is not right in mainstream economics. Fehr and Gächter frame the issue in terms of the adequacy of a pure self-interest model. We believe that for important questions in these areas [such as labor market interactions, public goods, and social norms] progress will not come from additional tweaking of a pure self-interest model, but rather from recognizing that a sizable proportion of economic actors act on considerations of reciprocity [Fehr and Gächter, p. 178]. Ostrom phrases the question in terms of the cogency of the self-interested agent. It is possible that past policy initiatives to encourage collective action that were based primarily on externally changing payoff structures for rational egoists may have been