Volume 6, No. 1 (Spring 2003)

Neoclassical utility functions are an invalid means of analyzing consumer behavior for three reasons: first, and most important, because such functions, and their attendant rankings, are cardinal, not ordinal in nature; second, because, with respect to the set of bundles relevant to actual human beings, such functions are not continuous and, therefore, not differentiable; and third, because such functions do not correctly, consistently, and properly include dimensions/units.

Volume 6, No. 1 (Spring 2003)

Volume 6, No. 1 (Spring 2003)

Volume 6, No. 1 (Spring 2003)

Volume 6, No. 3 (Fall 2003)

Volume 6, No. 2 (Summer 2003)

Volume 6, No. 2 (Summer 2003)

Volume 6, No. 2 (Summer 2003)

Volume 6, No. 2 (Summer 2003)

Volume 6, No. 2 (Summer 2003)

In sum, Economics and Culture is a serious attempt to bring economic analysis to bear on cultural issues. It is a fine survey of the cultural economics literature and makes a number of good isolated insights regarding the survival of culture. However, these strengths are ultimately more than offset by ambiguous analysis and arbitrary assumptions. The reader still awaits a satisfying economic analysis of culture.