Repugnancy costs are

cost 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 case the amount of money expended to acquire it i ...

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. They 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 (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

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