Research Catalog

Behavioral economics : a history

Title
Behavioral economics : a history / Floris Heukelom, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Author
Heukelom, Floris, 1978-
Publication
  • New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  • ©2014

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JBE 14-237Schwarzman Building - General Research Room 315

Details

Description
xii, 223 pages; 24 cm.
Summary
"In economics, the market has been understood to steer behavior towards a competitive equilibrium in which all economic actors behave optimally, and in which welfare of society is maximized. Yet many economists have also seen shortcomings to this ideal picture of the market in the form of limited information, too few buyers or sellers, adverse selection, moral hazards, and other caveats. What psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky brought to economics in the 1980s, was the idea that imperfections in the market may in addition be caused by fallible human behavior. This resulted in a new branch of economics called behavioral economics and it won Kahneman the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 2002 (Tversky had died in 1996). This book presents a history of behavioral economics. The common rationale of behavioral economics in the 1980s - 2000s was in one version or another that "Behavioral economics increases the explanatory power of economics by providing it with more realistic psychological foundations" (Camerer and Loewenstein, 2004, p.3). This definition conceals a complicated relationship between economics and psychology that goes back at least to the eighteenth century. In addition, it suggests that economics and psychology are stable, universal entities. But also the label of behavioral economics itself seems odd. If economics deals with the behavior of individuals in the economy, 'behavioral economics' seems a confusing pleonasm. If on the other hand one argues that economics by definition deals with structures and institutions superseding and independent of theories of human behavior, 'behavioral economics' seems oxymoronic. In any case, it calls for some explanation"--
Series Statement
Historical perspectives on modern economics
Uniform Title
Historical perspectives on modern economics.
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-220) and index.
Call Number
JBE 14-237
ISBN
  • 9781107039346 (hardback)
  • 1107039347 (hardback)
LCCN
2013027829
OCLC
853313624
Author
Heukelom, Floris, 1978- author.
Title
Behavioral economics : a history / Floris Heukelom, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Publisher
New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Copyright Date
©2014
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Series
Historical perspectives on modern economics
Historical perspectives on modern economics.
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-220) and index.
Research Call Number
JBE 14-237
View in Legacy Catalog