Mauss’s Gift Theory and the Edgeworth Box Diagram

Year 2025, Volume: 75 Issue: 1, 29 - 43, 14.07.2025

Banu Özüşen

https://doi.org/10.26650/ISTJECON2024-1428764

Abstract

In this study, the gift cycle of archaic societies is tried to be explained with the Edgeworth box diagram. The main objective of the study is to investigate whether the “giving, receiving, reciprocating” behavior works in a similar way in today’s societies, based on the gift mechanism seen in archaic societies. For this purpose, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth’s “Mathematical Psychics: An Essay of the Application of Mathematics to Moral Sciences”, one of the important works of economics, and Marcel Mauss’s “The Gift”, one of the leading works of social anthropology, are discussed with their common aspects. Mauss’s gift theory offers the opportunity to understand human behavior on exchange or trade. A significant part of the economic elements in the Gift system seen in archaic societies is similar to today’s societies. Although gift-giving is not simultaneous, it is consistent with the barter system if it takes place within the framework of all its rules. The Edgeworth box diagram provides a simple model for reciprocal exchange. In the article, the diagram is used to illustrate how the agents can reach equilibrium in their preferences. It also provides an insight into loss aversion, decision making under uncertainty, social preferences and reciprocity in the gift cycle from a behavioral economics perspective.

JEL Classification : D01 , D64 , D91

Keywords

Behavioral economics, Mauss’s gift theory, Edgeworth box diagram

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