Norms and Emotions

Hiroki Saruya and Masayuki Yagasaki

No 50, TUPD Discussion Papers from Graduate School of Economics and Management, Tohoku University

Abstract: Social norms are an important determinant of behavior, but the behavioral and welfare effects of norms are not well understood. We propose and axiomatize a decision-theoretic model in which a reference point is formed by the decision maker's perceptions of which actions are admired (prescriptive norms) and which are prevalent (descriptive norms), and utility depends on the pride of exceeding the reference point or the shame of falling below it. The model is simple, yet provides a unified explanation for previous empirical findings, and is useful for welfare analysis of norm-evoking policies with a revealed preference approach.

Pages: 85 pages
Date: 2024-06-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-mic and nep-upt
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:toh:tupdaa:50

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