Abstract
The rotten kid theorem states that, if a household head is sufficiently rich and benevolent towards other household members, then it is in the self-interest of other household members to take those actions that maximize the total income of the household, even at a cost to their own private income. This theorem holds under certain restrictive assumptions, but the assumptions needed for it to be true are not satisfied in many common family decision-making environments.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Alexander, R. 1979. Darwinism and human affairs. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Alexander, R. 1974. The evolution of social behavior. Annual Review of Ecological Systems 5: 25–83.
Becker, G. 1974. A theory of social interactions. Journal of Political Economy 82: 1063–1093.
Becker, G. 1981. A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bergstrom, T. 1989. A fresh look at the rotten kid theorem. Journal of Political Economy 97: 1138–1159.
Bergstrom, C., and T. Bergstrom. 1999. Does Mother Nature punish rotten kids? Journal of Bioeconomics 1: 47–72.
Bergstrom, T., and R. Cornes. 1983. Independence of allocative efficiency from distribution in the theory of public goods. Econometrica 51: 1753–1765.
Bruce, N., and M. Waldman. 1990. The rotten-kid theorem meets the Samaritan’s Dilemma. Quarterly Journal of Economics 105: 155–165.
Dawkins, R. 1976. The selfish gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hamilton, W. 1964. The genetical evolution of social behavior, I and II. Journal of Theoretical Biology 7: 1–52.
Lindbeck, A., and J. Weibull. 1988. Altruism and efficiency: The economics of fait accompli. Journal of Political Economy 96: 1165–1182.
Lundberg, S., and R. Pollak. 2003. Efficiency in marriage. Review of the Economics of the Household 1: 153–167.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bergstrom, T.C. (2018). Rotten Kid Theorem. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2325
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2325
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences