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  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2016
  5. "We Thinking" and Its Consequences

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

"We Thinking" and Its Consequences

  • Robert Akerlof
American Economic Review
vol. 106, no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 415–19)
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Abstract

Increasingly, economists are drawing on concepts from outside economics--such as "norms," "esteem," and "identity"--to model agents' social natures. A key reason for studying such social motivation is to shed light on the conditions that facilitate--or deter--collective action. It has been widely observed, for instance, that groups are more able to engage in collective action when they have a common, group identity. This paper gives one explanation for such a link. The paper develops a new concept, "we thinking"; and it also provides a deeper understanding of the concepts of norms, identity, and esteem.

Citation

Akerlof, Robert. 2016. ""We Thinking" and Its Consequences." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 415–19. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161040

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D11 Consumer Economics: Theory
  • D71 Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification