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Highlights l We model the causes and welfare impacts of the competition of gift giving. l We study gift competition and its impacts by using a unique database in China. l People respond to the average cost of gifts given in their community. l The escalation of gift giving has adverse welfare impacts. l Increasing gift expenditures squeeze spending on other consumption items. Abstract In many developing countries, gift expenses escalate with income growth and account for a substantial share of household expenditure. We develop a theoretical model to demonstrate how (unequal) income growth may trigger "gift competition" and drive up the financial burden associated with gift exchange. We use unique census-type panel data from rural China to test our model predictions and demonstrate that (1) the value of gifts responds to the average gift in the community, (2) the escalation of gift giving may have adverse welfare implications (especially for the poor), and (3) escalating gift expenses crowd out expenditures on other consumption items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the role of gift-giving during the period of the first Hasmoneans. Whereas Mattathias rejected gifts and other grants offered by the Seleucids (and by doing so sharpened the rift between Jews and Seleucids), from Jonathan onwards the Hasmoneans became players within this framework of gifting on the international scene and enter into the complex network of gifting and reciprocity. A distinction between gift, grant and concession is drawn, taking into account various aspects such as valuability (value of gift), status (the social stature of giver and receiver), supplementation (rhetoric that is considered to be part and parcel of gifting in Hellenistic etiquette), as well as compatibility (whether the gift is in proportion to the wealth of the giver and to the occasion it was given). The article concludes with a reference to the possible critical stance of the narrator of 1 Maccabees concerning gifts and gifting adopted by the later Hasmoneans in their relationships with Hellenistic powers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article investigates the circulation and consumption of gifts in contemporary, urban Japan. It sets out to challenge key anthropological debates about gifting that, firstly, focus on the inalienable connection between the donor and the gift and, secondly, emphasize the symbolic potential and historical depth of things. The Japanese gifts under discussion, employed in the production and reproduction of the social, cosmic and economic order, are commodities. They can be easily disentangled from the donor and are imbued with the spirit of the recipient through everyday consumption. Moreover, because these gifts are supposed to disappear through use, this article also draws attention to the significance of material loss in the creation of value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the modern gift literature an anti-utilitarian and a utilitarian view on the gift can be distinguished. From the anti-utilitarian perspective, the freedom of the gift is seen as one of its main characteristics, while the idea that gifts are caught in a cycle of reciprocity is downplayed. In the utilitarian approach, assumptions about rational actors weighing their preferences according to some utility are predominant. In the first approach, reciprocity is seen as undermining 'genuine' gifts. The utilitarian approach does take reciprocity into account but fails to analyse why the principle of reciprocity is so effective. This article attempts to provide such an explanation. By illuminating both the variety of the forms of the gift and the universality of the underlying principle, it is argued that gifts reflect a multi-purpose symbolic 'utility' that transcends both utilitarianism and anti-utilitarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of Merovingians and Carolingians' gift and gift-giving activity. According to the author, gifts and gift-giving practices have been scrutinized by medievalists during late 1950 century. A French sociologist Marcel Mauss made a difference in the perception of the historians and inspired professor Philip Grierson to treat the activity as a special form of transaction.

Sherry (1983) defines reformulation as the final stage of gift exchange, during which a newly presented gift can impact the relationship between giver and recipient. To date no one has examined exactly how gifts can affect relationships or what aspects of gift exchange contribute to realignment of the giver/recipient relationship. Using depth interviews and critical-incident surveys, our study explores how the recipient's perceptions of the existing relationship, the gift, the ritual context, and his or her emotional reactions converge to affect relationship realignment. We identify six relational effects of gift-receipt experiences. Further, we examine gift-receipt experiences that have a consistent impact in the short and long term, and those where the meanings and relational effects appear to change over time. Implications for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unilateral initiatives are intended to overcome hostility and impasse in bargaining by eliciting trust and thereby allowing for positive bargaining behavior. Previous research demonstrates the effectiveness of unilateral initiatives in the form of small symbolic concessions on the focal issue under negotiation. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of gift giving as unilateral initiatives and assesses the importance of two dimensions of gift giving--the cost of the gift to the giver and the benefit to the receiver. Subjects negotiated with a simulated actor that made unilateral initiatives in the form of gifts. The cost and benefit of the gifts were manipulated, and results indicate that the cost of the gifts was important in determining bargaining behavior (concession making and fine use) while the benefit of the gifts was less so. The effectiveness of gifts as unilateral initiatives implies the generality of the effect of initiatives across exchange domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]