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                EHS Abstract Submission
                    (c) 1997 EH.Net
-----------------------------------------------------------
              Name: Avner Offer
               Email: Avner.Offer@Nuffield.Oxford.ac.uk
         Institution: Nuffield College, University of Oxford
 
         Co-author: None
 
             Title: Between the Gift and the Market: The Economy
of Regard
 
  Internet Address
of abstracted work:
http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/History/gif2.ps and
http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/History/gif2_ps.zip
 
           By mail:
                     Dr Avner Offer
                     Nuffield College
                     Oxford
                     OX1 1NF
                     England
 
          Language: English
 
          Abstract:
   "The Great Transformation" from customary exchange to
impersonal markets has not been completed. Reciprocal exchange
pervades modern societies. It takes the form of "gifts" which are
reciprocated without certainty. It is driven by the pursuit of
"regard": the approbation of others. The idea is found in Adam
Smith. Money is avoided in regard exchanges, because it is
impersonal. Instead, the regard signal is embodied in goods,
services, or time (attention). The personalisation of gifts
authenticates the signal. Large-scale reciprocal exchange
persists in family formation and in inter-generational transfers.
It features in labour markets, in agriculture, the professions,
in marketing, entrepreneurship, and also in corruption and crime.
Reciprocal exchange is constrained by time and psychic energy,
but is likely to persist as a preferred source of regard.
 
      Bibliography: University of Oxford Discussion Papers in
Economic and Social History,
No. 3, January 1996.
 
                  Subject: W
 Geographical Area: 0
      Country/Region: Comparative
           Time Period: 0

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