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Institutional analysis and the gift: an introduction to the symposium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

Stefan Kesting ,
Ioana Negru  and
Paolo Silvestri
Stefan Kesting
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Ioana Negru*
Affiliation:
Management, Marketing and Business Administration, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Sibiu, Romania
Paolo Silvestri
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Turin, Torino, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ioana.negru@ulbsibiu.ro
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Abstract

How can gift and gift-giving studies be relevant to the study of institutions and vice versa? This is the question we broadly address in the introduction to this symposium while drawing on the contributing articles and sketching out a possible future research in a perspective of integration between these two fields of study. Is the gift an institution? What types of methodological approaches would be most suitable in view of such integration? We define the gift as transfers underpinned by institutions, including customs and norms. We contend that the institutional thought can employ empirical and qualitative research methods used by anthropology and that there are important and fruitful lines of tension between gift-giving and institutions – from the relationship between freedom and obligation to the role of third sector between state and market – worthy of further research in the future.

Keywords

Anthropologygift-givinggiftsinstitutional economicsinstitutions
Type
Symposium on Institutional Analysis and the Gift
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 665 - 674
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2020

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