所谓激励,就是理性人对资源的最合理的配置的欲望,针对于此,买方或卖方都选择一种办法使对方有理由和自己交易,并使双方过的更好.

我个人认为这里的激励应该是指经济人在权衡收益和成本后做出的有利于自己的选择！！！

我个人认为这里的激励用高鸿业老师的《微观经济学》中的词来说 就是替代效应在起作用，它引导人们权衡做与不做的结果会有什么不同，对人们的切身利益造成怎样的影响，进而引导人们的行为。

这是我的观点，而我是经济学中的菜鸟，望大家多多指教

Mankiw uses the simple word "incentive" here in <Principles of Economics>. Put the 4th principle in one word, "when incentive changes, people's response and behaviour change correspondingly."

Personally i strongly recommend u guys to read the English edtion which could be bought in WangFuJing book center.

<Principles of Economics>.is a very very good textbook for the beginner to enter the economics world. Both micro and macro are included here and Mankiw is the first person to break the impression that economis is a complicated and boring theory. after u read the English edition u will find that the informal and clear sentences are going through the whole pages.

BTW, WHENEVER YOU HAVE THE CHANCE TO READ THE ORIGINAL TEXTBOOK， DO NOT READ THE TRANSLATED ONES！！I noticed some translations distorted the original content and make the book difficult to understand!

improve your English and Economics simultanously, why not? :)

how do U know the fresh guys have such enough ability to read the original?

建议我看英文版的《经济学原理》，这是对我的一种激励。

我获得的利益是：读英文版可以更精确把握作者的意思，同时还能提高英文水平。

付出的成本是：花费大量时间，同时减少读书的快乐，还要承担完全看不明白的风险。

所以我所做出的反应是：犹豫了半年，中文版没买，英文版没看。

这个效果好像让我自己都难以接受……

when i first touched this book i even had not attended 4-level english certificaiton exam and knew nothing about economics. original book gernerally is easier to understand. in my point of view english is such a language more suitable to express academical words than chinese, (Just academical! lol) that's why they win most Nobel maybe^^ joke.

and all the friends here definitely have some economics background right? then it will not be hard, especially it is Mankiw one. US english is simple. Trust me and do have a look at the original book in WangFuJing bookstore. this book is the best guide leading us to internaitonal economics circle, and to find out the difference between domestic and foreign thinkings.

Everything begins with a try! ^^ JIA YOU

激励，引力也。力的方向变了，其行为也会改变。理性人会对激励作出反应！

焰焰是高手啊,"incentive'应该是做"趋向"解,也就是对消费这行为模式的趋向预测(我在说什么)

其实一般来说incentive 这一次在经济学范围都可以理解做"激励", 或者是"诱导因素".

也支持一下焰焰的说法: 没错, 其实从大一就开始看英文版的原文教材真的没难度. 本人当年高考英语才考个接近650分(当然啦,标准分900分的那种), 当年暑假,堂哥从LSE毕业回来把所有英文的教科书都送给我, 收益不浅. 因此从开始就看英文版教材了. 虽然说刚开始有点困难,但是看过几个章节以后便像武侠小说说的"打通经脉"一样了. 最大的好处还是, 你会记得每个概念对应的terms 和phrases, 在图书馆上国外的数据库找文章方便啊.

可否这样理解。

人们会趋例避害。当利害关系变了，人们的行为也会随之变化。

这个例子最早应该是芝大还是UCLA的一篇论文（具体是谁记不清了），其实主要还不是讨论的激励问题，而是讨论经济政策与实际的脱节，也就是想当然的政策不一定能产生预期的结果。本来是想减少交通事故，最后事故没减少，司机死得少了，但行人死得多了。曼昆用来说明激励也没错，反正就是怎么说都没错，再往深走应该看激励理论了。顺便提一下，我记得周其仁讲Alchian在评论这个问题是说，要想解决问题，就只有在司机的方向盘上放一把刀，这样应该没问题了。搞笑之用，到时候又有了新的激励等着人们去适应。

每一个制度都有存在其可带来作大好处的行为,你认识到了并作出了相应地行为选择----这就是激励啊!