IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v23y2011i4p475-512.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Kula and relation capital: Rational reinterpretation of primitive gift institution

Author

Listed:
  • Jaehyuck Lee

Abstract

We take the view that social institution can be interpreted as equilibrium outcomes from the rational conduct of social exchanges. ‘Relation capital’ captures the idea that people make an optimal choice in their tie-makings as well as individual acts. We reinterpret from a rational choice perspective the well-known gift institution of primitive society documented by classical anthropological studies, the kula . We provide a detailed analysis of kula in terms of relation capital accumulation and fame building. The dynamic optimization perspective is applied to reinterpret various aspects of this ceremonial exchange. A formal model of the kula economy is provided to show the unstable nature of the gift equilibrium. Optimal time paths of consumption and gift-giving are derived, and a sufficient condition for the instability of the steady state is formally provided. Many qualitative discussions are characterized in terms of formal results, including the reason for the specific form of kula.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaehyuck Lee, 2011. "Kula and relation capital: Rational reinterpretation of primitive gift institution," Rationality and Society, , vol. 23(4), pages 475-512, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:4:p:475-512
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463111425011
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463111425011
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463111425011?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Avner Offer, 1997. "Between the gift and the market: the economy of regard," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 50(3), pages 450-476, August.
    2. Posner, Richard A, 1980. "A Theory of Primitive Society, with Special Reference to Law," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 1-53, April.
    3. Jonathan P. Thomas & Timothy Worrall, 2002. "Gift-giving, Quasi-credit and Reciprocity," Rationality and Society, , vol. 14(3), pages 308-352, August.
    4. Stephen Gudeman, 2005. "Community and Economy: Economy's Base," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Yunxiang Yan, 2005. "The Gift and Gift Economy," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Deaton, Angus, 1992. "Understanding Consumption," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288244.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giuseppe Danese & Luigi Mittone, 2015. "Norms and trades: An experimental investigation," Rationality and Society, , vol. 27(3), pages 259-282, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Avner Offer, 1998. "Epidemics of Abundance: Overeating and Slimming in the USA and Britain since the 1950s," Oxford University Economic and Social History Series _025, Economics Group, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.
    2. Avner Offer, 1998. "Epidemics of Abundance: Overeating and Slimming in the USA and Britain since the 1950s," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _025, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    3. Garance Genicot, Georgetown University and Debraj Ray, New York University and Instituto de An´alisis Econ´omico (CSIC), 2004. "Informal Insurance, Enforcement Constraints, and Group Formation," Working Papers gueconwpa~04-04-03, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    4. Jonathan Gruber & Aaron Yelowitz, 1999. "Public Health Insurance and Private Savings," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(6), pages 1249-1274, December.
    5. Cristóbal Huneeus & Andrea Repetto, 2005. "The Dynamics of Earnings in Chile," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Jorge Restrepo & Andrea Tokman R. & Norman Loayza (Series Editor) & Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel (Series Edi (ed.),Labor Markets and Institutions, edition 1, volume 8, chapter 12, pages 383-410, Central Bank of Chile.
    6. Fatih Ozatay, 2008. "Expansionary Fiscal Consolidations: New Evidence from Turkey," Working Papers 0805, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Department of Economics.
    7. Das, Marcel & van Soest, Arthur, 1999. "A panel data model for subjective information on household income growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 409-426, December.
    8. Luc Arrondel & André Masson, 2013. "Measuring savers' preferences how and why?," PSE Working Papers halshs-00834203, HAL.
    9. CHADHA, Jagjit & SCHELLEKENS, Philip, "undated". "Monetary policy loss functions: two cheers for the quadratic," Working Papers 1999002, University of Antwerp, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    10. Söderlind, Paul, 1995. "Forward Interest Rates as Indicators of Inflation Expectations," CEPR Discussion Papers 1313, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. repec:tiu:tiutis:bdbe10dd-649c-4521-ab28-7aa051a5bf82 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Arellano, Manuel & Blundell, Richard & Bonhomme, Stéphane & Light, Jack, 2024. "Heterogeneity of consumption responses to income shocks in the presence of nonlinear persistence," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 240(2).
    13. He, Quqiong & Pan, Ying & Sarangi, Sudipta, 2018. "Lineage-based heterogeneity and cooperative behavior in rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 248-269.
    14. Manuel Arellano & Stéphane Bonhomme & Micole De Vera & Laura Hospido & Siqi Wei, 2022. "Income risk inequality: Evidence from Spanish administrative records," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(4), pages 1747-1801, November.
    15. Vincent (Vincent Peter) Hogan & Patrick O'Sullivan, 2003. "Consumption and house prices in Ireland," Open Access publications 10197/330, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    16. Peter T. Leeson, 2013. "Vermin Trials," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(3), pages 811-836.
    17. Mervyn Allister King, 1993. "Debt Deflation: Theory and Evidence," FMG Discussion Papers dp175, Financial Markets Group.
    18. Frédéric Zumer & Jacques Mélitz, 2002. "Partage du risque dans l'Union européenne. Expériences interrégionales et internationales," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(5), pages 299-323.
    19. Hildenbrand, Werner & Kneip, Alois, 2005. "Aggregate behavior and microdata," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 3-27, January.
    20. Groneck, Max & Ludwig, Alexander & Zimper, Alexander, 2016. "A life-cycle model with ambiguous survival beliefs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 137-180.
    21. Néstor Gandelman, 2016. "A Comparison of Saving Rates: Microdata Evidence from Seventeen Latin American and Caribbean Countries," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Spring 20), pages 201-258, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:4:p:475-512. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.