摘要：A growing body of literature emphasizes the influence of social relationships of sympathy/empathy, trust, and regard—social capital, on the terms and level of economic transactions. This paper aims to clarify the relationship between social motivations and economic decision-making. Using primary data on the motives for 4180 economic transactions, this study supports the notion that economic transactions often depend on social relationship related motives, which are often neglected in traditional economic analysis. Relative to commodity transactions such as the purchase of gasoline motivated mostly by own-consumption considerations, relational goods transactions such as getting a haircut, voting, and recycling depend more on social capital related motives. The evidence from this study suggests that neoclassical economic models fit well when describing exchanges of commodities in a monetary market transaction but might be misleading when applied to economic transactions where selfish motives play a less significant role in the exchange. Furthermore, our evidence provides additional support to the notion that motives vary across exchange activities in a manner consistent with the nature of the transaction.
关键词：Social Capital;Relational Goods;Social Motivations;Terms and Level of Exchange
