Đang chuẩn bị liên kết để tải về tài liệu:
THE ECONOMIC WAY OF LOOKING AT LIFE*

My research uses the economic approach to analyze social issues that range beyond those usually considered by economists. This lecture will describe the approach, and illustrate it with examples drawn from past and current work. Unlike Marxian analysis, the economic approach I refer to does not assume that individuals are motivated solely by selfishness or gain. It is a method of analysis, not an assumption about particular motivations. Along with others, I have tried to pry economists away from narrow assumptions about self interest. Behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences | THE ECONOMIC WAY OF LOOKING AT LIFE Nobel Lecture December 9 1992 by GARY S. BECKER Department of Economics University of Chicago Chicago IL. 60637 USA 1. The Economic Approach My research uses the economic approach to analyze social issues that range beyond those usually considered by economists. This lecture will describe the approach and illustrate it with examples drawn from past and current work. Unlike Marxian analysis the economic approach I refer to does not assume that individuals are motivated solely by selfishness or gain. It is a method of analysis not an assumption about particular motivations. Along with others I have tried to pry economists away from narrow assumptions about self interest. Behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences. The analysis assumes that individuals maximize welfare as they conceive it whether they be selfish altruistic loyal spiteful or masochistic. Their behavior is forward-looking and it is also consistent over time. In particular they try as best they can to anticipate the uncertain consequences of their actions. Forward-looking behavior however may still be rooted in the past for the past can exert a long shadow on attitudes and values. Actions are constrained by income time imperfect memory and calculating capacities and other limited resources and also by the available opportunities in the economy and elsewhere. These opportunities are largely determined by the private and collective actions of other individuals and organizations. Different constraints are decisive for different situations but the most fundamental constraint is limited time. Economic and medical progress have greatly increased length of life but not the physical flow of time itself which always restricts everyone to twenty-four hours per day. So while goods and services have expended enormously in rich countries the total time available to consume has not. Thus wants remain unsatisfied in rich countries as well as in poor ones. This