How do economists understand and measure normal social phenomena? 

Identifying economic strains in activities such as learning, group formation, discrimination, and peer dynamics requires sophisticated data and tools as well as a grasp of prior scholarship.  In this volume leading economists provide an authoritative summary of social choice economics, from norms and conventions to the exchange of discrete resources. Including both theoretical and empirical perspectives, their work provides the basis for models that can offer new insights in applied economic analyses. 

• Reviews the recent approaches that enable economists to separate influences of culture from those caused by economic and institutional environments
• Explores the recent willingness among economists to consider new arguments in the utility function
• Presumes that these investigations can eventually be translated into policies

  Peer and Neighborhood Effects
- Identification of Social Interactions (Lawrence E. Blume, William A. Brock, Steven N. Durlauf, and Yannis M. Ioannides)
- Econometric Methods for the Analysis of Assignmet Problems in the Presence of Complementarity and Social Spillovers (Bryan S. Graham)
- Peer Effects in Education: A Survey of the Theory and Evidence (Dennis Epple and Richard E. Romano)
- The Importance of Segregaion, Discrimination, Peer Dynamics, and Identity in Explaining Trends in the Racial Achievement Gap (Roland G. Fryer, Jr.)
- Labor Markets and Referrals (Giorgio Topa)
- Labor and Credit Networks in Developing Economies (Kaivan Munshi)
- Risk Sharing Between Households (Marcel Fafchamps)
- Neighborhood Effects and Housing (Yannis M. Ioannides)