TY - CHAP
T1 - Social construction of preferences
T2 - Advertising
AU - Benhabib, Jess
AU - Bisin, Alberto
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - We examine, with the tools of economics, a fundamental tenet of some of the most recent theoretical work in sociology, which we refer to as the Postmodernist Critique: preferences are socially constructed, firms exploit their monopoly power through advertising in order to create new (false) needs in consumers, and, as a consequence, consumer spending rises, and so does their supply of labor.
AB - We examine, with the tools of economics, a fundamental tenet of some of the most recent theoretical work in sociology, which we refer to as the Postmodernist Critique: preferences are socially constructed, firms exploit their monopoly power through advertising in order to create new (false) needs in consumers, and, as a consequence, consumer spending rises, and so does their supply of labor.
KW - Advertising
KW - Postmodernist critique
KW - Social construction of preferences
KW - Work and spend cycle
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872382603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84872382603&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-444-53187-2.00006-1
DO - 10.1016/B978-0-444-53187-2.00006-1
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84872382603
T3 - Handbook of Social Economics
SP - 201
EP - 220
BT - Handbook of Social Economics
PB - Elsevier B.V.
ER -