利他行为经济学研究的方法论

The Methodology of Economic Research on Altruistic Behavior

人类在日常生活中表现出了大量的利他行为,但到底是什么原因诱发这些行为并使其能够在人类社会繁衍、更替的过程中演变成稳定的行为模式呢?以自利作为基本假设的经济学没有放弃对这一问题的思索,半个多世纪以来出现了大量关于人类利他行为研究的经济学文献,它们突破了传统经济学的研究领域,把看似非经济的论题纳入到经济学的分析框架中。经济理论对利他行为的解释可以分为两类:一是可以从利他行为中直接获得幸福或快乐,从而自身的效用得到提高;二是可以间接从利他行为中获得物质利益。利他行为经济学研究的方法论可以从基本方法论、思维原理和技术方法三个层次进行探讨:在基本方法论方面,并没有形成对传统经济学的突破,依然坚守个人主义、功利主义和自由主义三大传统;在理论的逻辑构建上,利他经济学以抽象演绎方法为主、归纳方法为辅,较多地采用实证分析法、很少采用规范分析法;在方法论的第三层次即技术方法上,利他经济学主要使用了数学方法、博弈论、均衡分析方法、边际分析方法、实验方法、演化分析方法等。

There is a great deal of altruistic behaviors in our daily lives. However, what on earth induce human altruism and allow these act s to evolve into a stable pattern of behavior during the propagation and replacement of the human society？ This question has been explored by many disciplines such as biology, psy- chology, sociology. The economics which takes the self-interest as basic assumption has not also given up studying this issue. There has been a great deal of research on human altruistic behavior in the economics literature for nearly half a century. They break through the traditional domain of economics research and take the seemingly non-economic issues into the framework of the economics. Such an outstanding pionee- ring research is very likely to arose the next revolution of economics, therefore, it is very significant to an- alyze and summarize the met hodology of economics research on altruistic behavior. The economic explana- tion to altruistic behavior can be divided into two categories. On the one hand, people can directly obtain happiness or joy from acts of altruism, which improves the effectiveness of their own; On the other hand, people can also obtain material benefits from acts of altruism indirectly. The methodology of economic re- search on altruistic behavior can be discussed from three levels in basic methodology, thinking principle and technical methods. In the aspect of basic methodology, it does not break through the traditional eco- nomics and still adhere to the three great traditions, individualism, utilitarianism and liberalism. In the logic of the theory, altruistic economics use mainly the approach of abstract interpretation and supplemen- tarily the approach of induction. It also use more empirical analysis than standardized analysis. In the third level of methodology, which are technical methods： altruistic economics mainly use the mathematical methods, game theory, balanced analysis, marginal analysis, experimental methods, and the methods of evolution.