How Markets Crouwd Out Morals - ENGLISH LEARNING MEMORANDA

今日はWhat Money Can't Buyの第3章の途中、117ページまで。

第3章 How Markets Crowd Out Morals

買えない物と言ったら、友達だったり、ノーベル賞だったり、オスカーだったり、でもオスカー像は買えたけど、売らないように誓約書を書かなければ授賞しなくなったのでまた買えなくなったり、結婚式の挨拶も買うことができたり。。。

ギフトが物から金銭になったりしていることについて、経済学では

From the standpoint of market reasoning, it is almost always better to give cash rather than a gift.

であって、経済学者のJoel Waldfogelによると、

"We value items we receive as gifts 20 percent less, per dollar spent, than items we buy for ourselves."

と評価される一方で、実際にはgiftが何故喜ばれるのかということに関しては、経済学者のMankiwのように

Mankiw suggests gift giving serves a signaling function. A man contemplating a gift for his girlfriend "has private information that the girlfriend would like to know: Does he really love her? Choosing a good gift for her is a signal of his love."

と考えられていたりもして、

To monetize all forms of giving among friends can corrupt friendship by suffusing it with utilitarian norms.

で、FreakonomicsのDubnerとLevittも

the reluctance to give cash gifts is, for the most part, a "social taboo" that "crushes the economist's dream" of a "beautifully efficient exchange."

と見ている。

実際は、ギフトカードが隆盛で

From 1998 to 2010, annual sales of gift cards increased almost eightfold, to more than $90 billion.

にいたり、最近では、

Suppose your aunt gives you a fruitcake for Christmas. The fruitcake company sends you an email informing you of the thoughtful gift and giving you the option of accepting delivery, exchanging it for something else, or sending the fruitcake to an unsuspecting person on your gift list. Since the transaction takes place online, you don't have to bother repacking the item and taking it to the post office. If you opt for regifting, the new recipient is offered the same options. So it's possible that the unwanted fruitcake could ricochet its way indefinitely through cyberspace."

というサービスまで考案されている。

一方、金銭的なインセンティブを導入すると公共心がかえって薄れてしまうことがあり、スイスの核廃棄物処理施設建設において、

Although the facility was widely viwed as an undesirable addition to the neighborhood, a slim majority (51%) of residents said they would accept it. Apparently their sense of civic duty outweighed their concern about the risks. Then the economists added a sweetener: suppose parliament proposed building the nuclear waste facility in your community and offered to compensate each resident with an annual monetary payment. Then wouuld you favor it?
　The result: support went down, not up. Adding the financial inducement cut the rate of acceptance in half, from 51 to 25 percent.

のように、

The intrusion of market norms crowded out their sense of civic duty."

が生じている。