Dasgupta, P. and Goyal, S.

Narrow Identities

WP Number: 1617

Abstract: A person's social identity has many facets, involving language, personal interests, customs, religion, and ethnicity, among other attributes. Yet, all over the world many people seek to define themselves in exclusive terms. This paper develops a simple model of personal incentives and group interests to offer one possible explanation for the puzzle.

Keywords: conflict, efficiency, externalities, identity, populism

JEL Codes: D60 D70

Author links: Sanjeev Goyal  Partha Dasgupta  

PDF: wp1617.pdf

Open Access Link: 10.17863/CAM.5877

Theme: networks

Published Version of Paper: Narrow Identities, Dasgupta, P. and Goyal, S., Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (2019)