Suchergebnisse

AbstractIn Western societies, in-kind gifts are generally more common than money gifts. However, exchange of in-kind gifts potentially involves inefficiency. Several models have been suggested to explain the in-kind gift-giving practice as a rational behaviour under certain assumptions about givers' preferences and information and/or technological constraints. Unlike many Western societies, China has a long tradition of money gift-giving. So-called red packets are commonly exchanged. We argue that models developed to rationalise Western norms of gift-giving cannot fully account for Chinese gift-giving practices, and some Chinese practices even contradict existing theories. We collect Chinese household data through two surveys to establish stylised facts about gift-giving. We find that money gifts are commonly appropriate, depending on the occasion and relationship between givers and receivers. Moreover, for every occasion and relationship, money is more appropriate than gift vouchers. Finally, unlike studies focusing on Western gift-giving, our study finds no evidence that givers need to compensate receivers with higher value when giving money gifts rather than in-kind gifts. Our results are consistent with the view that the acceptability of moneyvis-à-visin-kind gifts is governed primarily by social convention rather than information and technological constraints or the specific preferences of givers.

SummaryThis paper examines how social media have modified the process through which information spreads within a population. Building on agent‐based modeling and a behavioral survey on information diffusion following a food scare in China (n = 586), we study diffusion networks in simulated populations with and without access to social media. While the use of social media does not increase the likelihood of informational cascades, our results suggest a significant change in the topology of diffusion networks. Social media facilitate the formation of feedback loops through the emergence of multiple links, which can potentially lead to instances of market and social panic.