Social scientists from a variety of fields have grappled with questions about why gift giving exists and where its utility comes from because it is economically inefficient. Economic models of sexual relationships (e.g., Baumeister & Vohs, 2004) propose that gifts given by men are motivated by attempts to barter for access to sex. We offer an alternative model, based on costly signaling theory ...

In the past, gift-giving has interested mainly anthropologists because it was taken to be a primitive mode of exchange. Recent contributions of economists acknowledge however that gift-giving is still present in modern exchange economies. In this paper gifts are characterized by motivations. Two main features of gift giving are to be explained: (in-)adequacy and (non-)reciprocity. It is argued ...

The aim of this paper to explain gift-giving by means of social approval. In a simple framework we are able to account for a number of stylized facts. These are that gift-giving is often reciprocal, that gifts tend to be inadequate, and that gift-giving is sometimes reduced after a monetary compensation is o¤ered. The implication for the interaction between gift-giving and the market institutio...

Giving gifts is a fundamental part of human relationships that is being affected by technology. The Internet enables people to give at the last minute and over long distances, and to observe friends giving and receiving gifts. How online gift giving spreads in social networks is therefore important to understand. We examine 1.5 million gift exchanges on Facebook and show that receiving a gift c...

This paper asks whether gift exchange generates externalities for people outside of the bilateral relationship between the gift giver and recipient, and whether the nature of this relationship is affected by social networks. We examine this question in the context of a field experiment in urban Chinese hospital outpatient clinics. We first show that when patients give a small gift, doctors reci...

Fairness is a strong concern as shown by dictator and ultimatum experiments. Efficiency, measured by the sum of individual payoffs, is a potentially competing concern in games such as the prisoners’ dilemma. In our experiment participants can increase efficiency by gift giving. In the one-sided treatment this is only possible for one of the two partners. The two-sided treatment allows for mutua...

Polyandrous females are expected to discriminate among males through postcopulatory cryptic mate choice. Yet, there is surprisingly little unequivocal evidence for female-mediated cryptic sperm choice. In species in which nuptial gifts facilitate mating, females may gain indirect benefits through preferential storage of sperm from gift-giving males if the gift signals male quality. We tested th...