Altruism in the Family and Selfishness in the Market Place
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9724489 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Gary S Becker (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 189 |
| Pages | 1 |
| Publication date | 1981-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-0427 • E-ISSN: 1468-0335 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2552939 |
| OpenAlex | W2007380343 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 148 |
| References cited | 5 |
Adam Smith argued in a famous passage that people are selfish in their market transactions: It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages (1937, p. 14). In an earlier study, he said with irony, We are not ready to suspect any person of being defective in (1853, p. 446). Selfishness in market transactions has been assumed in practically all subsequent discussions of the economic system. Objections were dismissed with vague allusions to human nature or with an assertion that altruism loses out to selfishness in the struggle to survive in the market sector. Yet altruism is generally recognized to be important within a family. Again, Adam Smith said
Adam smith · Altruism (biology) · Assertion · Criminology · Economics · Humanity · Law and economics · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Positive economics · Selfishness · Sociology · Suspect · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Economic Theory and Institutions · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Norms in Transition? The Relationship between Education and Singlehood
Familia y teoría de juegos
El estatuto teórico de la niñez y de la juventud en la reflexión económica
The Influence of Internet Usage Frequency on Women’s Fertility Intentions—The Mediating Effects of Gender Role Attitudes
A Mixed Approach to the Work-Motherhood Relation
Casamento por troca de status de professoras do Ensino Médio e Fundamental de Nobres - MT
El problema de Smith y la relación entre moral y economía
The impact of job loss on family dissolution
Cómo diseñar una investigación para el análisis de las relaciones de género. Aportaciones metodológicas
El uso de las transferencias privadas inter-vivos por los hogares
Argentina's fertility regime (1980-2010)
Why Do Adult Children Support Their Parents
Generating Reforms and Reforming Generations
Les échelles d’équivalence à l’épreuve des nouvelles configurations familiales
Universal Decentralisation
The importance of faith
Im Dienst Sozialer Dienste
Society on the Edge
Empathy
Does the Mortality Decline Promote Economic Growth?
Children's Resources in Collective Households
Perspectives on Value Change
Income Dependency within Couples
A model of redistribution under social identification in heterogeneous federations
Left–Right Materialist Value Orientations
A Vignette Study of Older Adults’ Preferences for Intergenerational Transfers in the Context of Competition Between Grandparents and Grandchildren in Rural China
Group Consumption with Caring Individuals
Grandparents’ Financial Contributions to Grandchildren in Rural China
Teen parent trap? The education and labor implications of motherhood and fatherhood during the transition from adolescence to adulthood in Cebu, the Philippines
Altruism in preventive health behavior
Unpaid Caregiving and Labor Force Participation among Chinese Middle-Aged Adults
Health Service Needs from a Household Perspective
Detours and Contours of Inherited Wealth
Marriage with Labour Supply
You Can’t Be Happier than Your Wife - Happiness Gaps and Divorce
Penalización salarial femenina en Brasil y Colombia
Extended family migration decisions
Resources allocation and household living standards
Familial relationships and efforts in retention of marriage among atomistic families in Indonesia
Psychological Selfishness
Relative Income Status Within Marriage and Subjective Well-Being in China
Social interactions and social preferences in social networks
Credit Cards and the Receipt of Financial Assistance from Friends and Family
Examining Parental Expenditure on Children in Ghana
Credit Card Debt and the Provision of Financial Support to Kin in the US
The Edifying Discourses of Adam Smith
Early Parenthood and Educational Outcomes. Are There Differences Between Young Teenage Mothers and Fathers
The Homo Economicus as a Prototype of a Psychopath? A Conceptual Analysis and Implications for Business Research and Teaching
A theory of instrumental and existential rational decisions
Collective risk-taking by couples
Fertility and financial development
Comrades in the family? Soviet communism and demand for family insurance
The cost of love
Women’s education and desire for additional children in Vietnam
Illegal Earnings, Opportunity Structures and the Timing of Life Transitions
Family dynamics in China and Europe in the last half-century
The effect of long-term care insurance on labor force participation among informal caregivers
Conditional cash transfers to mothers, intrahousehold allocations
An invisible health killer? The psychological cost of energy poverty from a gendered perspective in China
The effect of succession on corporate governance reform under the Chinese clan culture context
Gender dynamics and marital bargaining in the Global South
Second demographic transition or aspirations in transition
Geospatial analysis of female fertility in Oman
Wealth
Le patrimoine
Natives’ and migrants’ employment uncertainty and childbearing during the great recession
Schools Out
Gender Norms and Network Structure
If Queers were Counted
Sharing work and food within the household
Joint Land Titling and Household Bargaining in Madagascar
Gender Norms and the Economy
Revisiting Women's Labor Force Participation in Catalonia (1920–36)
Gender, migration distance, and spousal preferences among migrant workers in China
Women’s autonomy and old age pension transfer in South Africa
Gender Bias in Resource Allocation in India
Uncertain survival and time discounting
Happiness functions with preference interdependence and heterogeneity
Are parents altruistic? Evidence from Mexico
Leadership delegation in rotten kid families
Does income moderate the satisfaction of becoming a parent? In Germany it does and depends on education
Happiness and altruism within the extended family
Mind the Gap
Economic Insecurity among Gay and Bisexual Men
Die Alterung der Gesellschaft und der Generationenkonflikt in Europa / Aging Societies and Intergenerational Conflict in Europe
Preference Heterogeneity, Power, and Intrahousehold Decision-Making in Rural Malaysia
Is landownership a ladder out of poverty
Shared agency
Motives for private transfers over the life cycle
A stochastic model of mortality, fertility, and human capital investment
Were Parents Synchronizing Their Home-Based Working Arrangements During the Covid-19 Pandemic
As an Economy Becomes More Developed, Do People Become Less Altruistic
A Structural Equation Model of Female Empowerment
The Impact of Values
Caregiving time costs and trade-offs
Maternal Education and Childrenʼs Well‐Being
Fertility and urbanization
The Impact of Gary Becker's Work on Sociology
Bir İktisat Emperyalizmi Örneği Olarak Gary Becker’in İktisadi Yaklaşımında Sosyal Antropolojinin Kolonizasyonu
Impacts beyond the child
| Unique citing works | 148 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,36 |
| Citation span | 1982 - 2026 (45) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 133 |