Group Behaviour and Development

Datos Bibliográficos

ID23136553
AutoresJudith Heyer (0009-0008-1790-1223), J Mohan Rao (0000-0002-9143-9638), Jyoti Rao (0000-0002-7715-1291), F Stewart (0000-0003-2560-3126), Rosemary Thorp
Año2002
Páginas1-22
Fecha de publicación2002-09-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoCHAPTER
RevistaGroup behaviour and development (SOURCE_BOOK)
EditorialOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780199256914.003.0001
OpenAlexW1596940197
ISBN9780199256914
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6

Most economic decisions are taken by people acting within, and very often on behalf of, groups. As consumers, individuals are members of families; as producers, they operate within firms. Moreover, there are a variety of less formal groups, such as neighbourhood or community associations and networks of producers, which play an important role in influencing behaviour and outcomes. Yet much of economics puts individuals at the centre of analysis. In the basic neoclassical framework individual consumers are assumed to maximize their own utility, while firms—which are treated as cohesive units, that is, as quasi-individuals—are assumed to maximize profits. Interaction between the two is deemed to underlie resource allocation, and, in certain rather restrictive conditions, result in a welfare optimum. Even governments are mostly treated as if each were an individual with unitary objectives. Important departures from the utilitarian approach led by Sen, arguing that development consists of the expansion of capabilities or freedoms, continue to take an individualistic stance—the objective in question being expansion ofindividual capabilities or freedoms (Sen 1999).

Business · Economics · Individualism · Market economy · Microeconomics · Neighbourhood (mathematics) · Political science · Public economics · Unitary state · Variety (cybernetics) · Welfare · Economic Theory and Institutions · Law · Political Economy and Marxism