Repugnancy costs are
cost
In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in whic ...
s borne by an individual or entity as a result of a stimulus that goes against that individual or entity's cultural
mores
Mores (, sometimes ; , plural form of singular , meaning "manner, custom, usage, or habit") are social norms that are widely observed within a particular society or culture. Mores determine what is considered morally acceptable or unacceptable ...
. The cost could be emotional, physical, mental or figurative. The stimulus could be anything from food to people to an idea.
These costs are perspective-dependent and individual. These costs may be different for different groups of people; countries, states, ethnicities, etc. The term allows for a clear and understandable way of representing the concept of contextual stigma in a literal and applicable sense.
Repugnancy costs measure the degree of dislike toward a
repugnant market or transaction by appealing to the concept of
equalizing differences developed by
Adam Smith: What is the minimum compensation that we have to provide to an individual to be willing to allow a
repugnant market or transaction?
Origin
Repugnancy costs were first mentioned in a debate between
Alvin Roth and Julio Elias on whether there should be an official
market for kidneys. The act of buying and selling
organs
In biology, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to act together in a f ...
may be against one's cultural mores; it may be repugnant. Hence, this is an additional cost one must bear if such a market was deemed repugnant in the context of one's culture.
In an experimental survey, Elias, Lacetera and Macis (2019) find that preferences for compensation have strong moral foundations; participants in the experiment especially reject direct payments by patients, which they find would violate principles of fairness.
[ Elías, Julio J., Nicola Lacetera, and Mario Macis. 2019]
"Paying for Kidneys? A Randomized Survey and Choice Experiment."
American Economic Review, 109 (8): 2855-88.
See also
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Prohibitionism
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Repugnant market
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Yuck factor
References
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Costs
Cultural concepts