Abstract :
We present a model incorporating both social and economic components and
analyze their interaction. The notion of a social asset, an attribute that has value
only because of the social institutions governing society, is introduced. In the
basic model, agents match on the basis of income and unproductive attributes.
Anattribute has value in some equilibrium social institutions (matching patterns),
but not in others. We then show that productive attributes (such as education)
can have their value increased above their inherent productive value by some
social institutions, leading to the notion of the social value of an asset.
