voluntary exchange

(noun)

Voluntary exchange is the act of buyers and sellers freely and willingly engaging in market transactions. Moreover, transactions are made in such a way that both the buyer and the seller are better off after the exchange than before it occurred.

Related Terms

Examples of voluntary exchange in the following topics:

  • Capitalism

    • Capitalism is generally considered by scholars to be an economic system that includes private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit or income, the accumulation of capital, competitive markets, voluntary exchange, and wage labor.

  • Public Sphere and Civil Society

    • The public sphere is composed of voluntary associations that promote social capital and social cohesion while enhancing democracy.
    • In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam gave the famous example of bowling leagues as a voluntary association that makes up civil society.
    • But over the years, bowling leagues have become less common (and, according to Putnam, so have all types of voluntary associations).
    • They argued that the political element of many voluntary organizations facilitates better awareness and a more informed citizenry, who make better voting choices, participate in politics, and hold government more accountable as a result.
    • Voluntary associations, such as Elks Clubs, make up the public sphere.

  • The Capitalist Critique of Socialism

    • Economic liberals, pro-capitalist libertarians, and some classical liberals view private enterprise, private ownership of the means of production, and the market exchange as central to conceptions of freedom and liberty.
    • Milton Friedman argued that the absence of voluntary economic activity makes it too easy for repressive political leaders to grant themselves coercive powers.

  • Modality and levels of analysis

    • Individuals in their work relations may be seen as nested within organizations; in their leisure relations they may be nested in voluntary associations.
    • There may even be patterns of ties among school districts (say by the exchange of students, teachers, curricular materials, etc.).

  • Cooperation

    • There are three main types of cooperation: coerced, voluntary, and unintentional.
    • Voluntary cooperation is cooperation to which all parties consent.
    • An example of voluntary cooperation would be individuals opting to complete a group project for school when given the option of a group project or an individual project.
    • Compare the three types of cooperation (coerced, voluntary and unintentional) and why cooperation is necessary for social reality

  • Exchange

    • Social exchange theory applies this type of equation to social relationships.
    • Social exchange theory is a sociopsychological and sociological perspective that explains social change and stability as a process of negotiated exchanges between parties.
    • Nevertheless, social exchange theory argues that forming relationships is advantageous because of exchange.
    • Notably, while social exchange theory may reference the literal exchange of goods, it can also mean the exchange of more intangible elements.
    • Several assumptions undergird social exchange theory.

  • Childless Couples

    • Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children.
    • Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children.
    • With the advent of environmentalism and concerns for stewardship, those choosing to not have children are also sometimes recognized as helping reduce our impact, such as members of the voluntary human extinction movement .
    • With the advent of environmentalism and concerns for stewardship, those choosing to not have children are also sometimes recognized as helping reduce our impact, such as members of the voluntary human extinction movement.

  • Minorities

    • Assimilation can be voluntary or forced.
    • Voluntary assimilation is usually the case with immigrants, who often adopt the dominant culture established earlier.
    • Reasons that have been postulated for voluntary assimilation include:

  • The Decline of the Traditional Family

    • One parent households, cohabitation, same sex families, and voluntary childless couples are increasingly common.
    • Voluntary childlessness in women is defined as women of childbearing age who are fertile and do not intend to have children, women who have chosen sterilization, or women past childbearing age who were fertile but chose not to have children.

  • Defining automorphic equivalence

    • More intuitively, actors are automorphically equivalent if we can permute the graph in such a way that exchanging the two actors has no effect on the distances among all actors in the graph.
    • If we want to assess whether two actors are automorphically equivalent, we first imagine exchanging their positions in the network.
    • In the case of structural equivalence, two actors are equivalent if we can exchange them one-for-one, and not affect any properties of the graph.
    • Automorphically equivalent actors are actors that can be exchanged with no effect on the graph -- given that other actors are also moved.