Repugnancy costs are

cost In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in which ...

s borne by an individual or entity as a result of a stimulus that goes against that individual or entity's cultural

mores Mores (, sometimes ; , plural form of singular , meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable ...

. The cost could be emotional, physical, mental or figurative. The stimulus could be anything from food to people to an idea. These costs are perspective-dependent and individual. These costs may be different for different groups of people; countries, states, ethnicities, etc. The term allows for a clear and understandable way of representing the concept of contextual stigma in a literal and applicable sense. Repugnancy costs measure the degree of dislike toward a repugnant market or transaction by appealing to the concept of equalizing differences developed by

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

: What is the minimum compensation that we have to provide to an individual to be willing to allow a repugnant market or transaction?

Origin

Repugnancy costs were first mentioned in a debate between

Alvin Roth Alvin Eliot Roth (born December 18, 1951) is an American academic. He is the Craig and Susan McCaw professor of economics at Stanford University and the Gund professor of economics and business administration emeritus at Harvard University.

and Julio Elias on whether there should be an official market for kidneys. The act of buying and selling

organs In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a ...

may be against one's cultural mores; it may be repugnant. Hence, this is an additional cost one must bear if such a market was deemed repugnant in the context of one's culture. In an experimental survey, Elias, Lacetera and Macis (2019) find that preferences for compensation have strong moral foundations; participants in the experiment especially reject direct payments by patients, which they find would violate principles of fairness. Elías, Julio J., Nicola Lacetera, and Mario Macis. 2019
"Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment."
American Economic Review, 109 (8): 2855-88.

References

{{economics-stub Costs Cultural concepts

Origin

See also

References