Douglas White
Paper #: 16-02-002
Development economists have superseded any necessity of using Arrow’s methodological individualism (MI) in focusing on cross-cultural, cross-national, or developmental economics. This study examines whether analysis of cross-cultural economic models might include a concept of economic generosity as a type of economic structuration that deviates from MI principles and is closer to what economists study in developing economies. A cross-cultural variable for measuring economic generosity is developed here from the Murdock and White (1969: SCCS) dataset, rediscovered through online internet searches of ethnographic sources a consistent “economic generosity variable” that contrasts with Arrow’s MI as a possible variable for comparative modeling of economies.