Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction by the Editors
- Advances in Economics and Econometrics
- 1 Empirical Models of Auctions
- 2 Identification in Models of Oligopoly Entry
- 3 Empirical Models of Imperfect Competition: A Discussion
- 4 Recent Developments in the Economics of Price Discrimination
- 5 Bounded Rationality in Industrial Organization
- 6 Price Discrimination and Irrational Consumers: Discussion of Armstrong and Ellison
- 7 Behavioral Economics
- 8 Incentives and Self-Control
- 9 Discussion of “Behavioral Economics”
- 10 Dynamic Models for Policy Evaluation
- 11 Microeconometric Search-Matching Models and Matched Employer-Employee Data
- 12 Discussion of ‘Dynamic Models for Policy Evaluation’ and ‘Microeconometric Search-Matching Models and Matched Employer-Employee Data’
- 13 Field Experiments in Development Economics
- 14 Institutions and Development: A View from Below
- Index
- Titles in the series
7 - Behavioral Economics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Introduction by the Editors
- Advances in Economics and Econometrics
- 1 Empirical Models of Auctions
- 2 Identification in Models of Oligopoly Entry
- 3 Empirical Models of Imperfect Competition: A Discussion
- 4 Recent Developments in the Economics of Price Discrimination
- 5 Bounded Rationality in Industrial Organization
- 6 Price Discrimination and Irrational Consumers: Discussion of Armstrong and Ellison
- 7 Behavioral Economics
- 8 Incentives and Self-Control
- 9 Discussion of “Behavioral Economics”
- 10 Dynamic Models for Policy Evaluation
- 11 Microeconometric Search-Matching Models and Matched Employer-Employee Data
- 12 Discussion of ‘Dynamic Models for Policy Evaluation’ and ‘Microeconometric Search-Matching Models and Matched Employer-Employee Data’
- 13 Field Experiments in Development Economics
- 14 Institutions and Development: A View from Below
- Index
- Titles in the series
Summary
Abstract
Behavioral economics uses evidence from psychology and other disciplines to create models of limits on rationality, willpower and self-interest, and explore their implications in economic aggregates. This paper reviews the basic themes of behavioral economics: sensitivity of revealed preferences to descriptions of goods and procedures; generalizations of models of choice over risk, ambiguity, and time; fairness and reciprocity; non-Bayesian judgment; and stochastic equilibrium and learning. A central issue is what happens in equilibrium when agents are imperfect but heterogeneous; sometimes firms “repair” limits through sorting, but profit-maximizing firms can also exploit limits of consumers. Frontiers of research include careful formal theorizing about psychology and studies with field data. Neuroeconomics extends the psychological data use to inform theorizing to include details of neural circuitry. It is likely to support rational choice theory in some cases, to buttress behavioral economics in some cases, and to suggest different constructs as well.
THE THEMES AND PHILOSOPHY OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS
Behavioral economics applies models of systematic imperfections in human rationality, to the study and engineering of organizations, markets and policy. These imperfections include limits on rationality, willpower and self-interest (Rabin, 1998; Mullainathan and Thaler, 2000), and any other behavior resulting from an evolved brain with limited attention. The study of individual differences in rationality and learning is also important for understanding whether social interaction and economic aggregation minimize effects of rationality limits. In one sense, behavioral economics is the inevitable result of relaxing the assumption of perfect rationality.
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- Information
- Advances in Economics and EconometricsTheory and Applications, Ninth World Congress, pp. 181 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
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