Top Research Papers on Behavioural Economics

Mainstream economics postulates the existence of an economic man endowed with rational and self-interested behaviour. The aim of this article is to analyze the relevance of this attributes, since the economic behaviour is, both, a form of human action and the object of the study of economics. Moreover, we go further with some particular objectives and examine the role of behavioural economics and the way in which it relates to the traditional model. The current events on the world stage have generated heated debates in the academic world with respect to the adequacy of the analysis of the econ...

Behavioural economics offers a critique of modern neoclassical economics by providing empirical evidence that the model of rational choice does not accurately describe human decision‐making processes. The existence of cognitive biases, what we might term ‘agent failure’, becomes reason to doubt the efficacy of unhampered markets, and is seen by some as a sufficient condition for government intervention. This article offers a critique of this argument from an Austrian and public choice theory comparative institutions perspective. Agent failure arguments are analogous to market failure arguments...

NPA is a vexing problem which has been globally effecting economies for a long time. The mounting NPA levels in banks and financial institutions calls for earnest attention and immediate action as it is a menace to the public. Bank credit motivates economic growth of the country and any obstruction in the undisturbed flow of credit, a significant cause for which is the heightened NPA levels, is detrimental to the health of the economy. The issue of Non-performing assets (NPA), the blatant cause of the current global financial crisis, has been drawing the attention of all and sundry for its rap...

Behavioural economics draws upon fieldwork, experiments and research in disciplines such as psychology for building blocks to construct economic analysis that is more descriptively realistic and both augments and qualifies traditional economics as a tool for designing policy. Though behavioural economics has attracted much attention and respectability in the past decade or so, its roots date back to work undertaken in Europe a century ago and in the US in the middle of the twentieth century. Whereas economists traditionally have seen choice as an optimising activity subject to given preference...

As far as recent developments in economic theory are concerned, "Behavioral Economics" constitutes one of the most promising frontiers in the last ten years, as the Nobel Prize for Economics recently won by the social psychologist Daniel Kahneman and the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal granted to the young economist Matthew Rabin testify. It is then worth asking the following questions: what is, exactly, Behavioral Economics? What are the reasons behind its recent success? This survey aims at providing a first answer, both directly and indirectly, to such questions, by illustrating the main...

This chapter analyses the motivations of economic actors in classical Athens from the point of view of modern behavioural economics. The (now) old orthodoxy of M.I. Finley, drawing on Bücher and Weber, stressed that the so‐ called homo economicus did not exist until recent times: in antiquity, an anti‐productive mentality was essentially hard‐wired into the minds of elite Greeks and Romans, preventing economic development. This approach has been widely rejected in recent years, and in particular the methods of New Institutional Economics (NIE) have provided a way around the moribund formalist‐...

The ability of consumers to make informed financial decisions improves their ability to develop sound personal finance. This paper uses a panel data set from Russia, an economy in which household debt has grown at an astounding rate, to examine the importance of financial literacy and its effects on behavior. The paper studies both the financial and real consequences of financial illiteracy. Even though consumer borrowing increased very rapidly in Russia, only 41% of respondents demonstrate an understanding of interest compounding and only 46% can answer a simple question about inflation. Fina...

1. Introduction Henri Baudet and Henk van der Meulen 2. The Transition From Traditional to Modern Patterns of Demand in Belgium Peter Scholliers and Chris Vandenbroeke 3. Food Consumption and Welfare 1852-1911 Henri Baudet and Henk van der Meulen 4. Dietary changes in Europe from 16th to 20th Century, With Particular Reference to France and Italy Maurice Aymard 5. Interrelations Between Consumption, Economic Growth and Income Distribution in Latin America Since 1800: A Comparative Perspective David Felix 6. Changes in Lifestyle in Japan: Pattern and Structure of Modern Consumption Mine Yasuzaw...

Most of the economic literature takes preferences as given. Economists use them as the building blocks of their models, estimate them in lab experiments and correlate them with life outcomes. But we only rarely ask about their origins. How come that fundamental preferences such as risk aversion, reciprocity, inequality aversion and altruism vary so strongly across individuals? Are they biologically predetermined or can we shape them through upbringing and education? This dissertation aims to take a step towards answering these questions. Chapter two investigates whether the willingness to comp...

This thesis analyses decision making through the lens of behavioural economics. The three essays within consider variants of adverse selection problems and psychological biases which can manifest from imperfections in an information structure. The predominant psychological theory is informed by the idea of bounded awareness; one’s tendency to make suboptimal decisions through overlooking important information. The first essay concerns the winner’s curse in bargaining. The second essay assesses bidding behaviour in an auction environment. The third essay considers disclosure decisions. The gen...

Taxation and Economic Behaviour offers a number of broad introductory surveys in the areas of public economics and public finance. Divided clearly into two parts – measurement issues and taxation and economic behaviour – this innovative collection of articles consists of published refereed papers and several new and previously unpublished pieces.

August 22, 1981 from that range that is indeterminate. Choice from that range on the basis of the relative prices could be at least as good as or better than choice from that range on the basis of previous preference structures.

: Behavioural economics offers an account of actual human behaviour. Contrasting with the conventional normative approach to rationality, rational choice theory, describes the deviations from optimal decision making. These are attributed to failures in two systems, one in charge of automatic behaviour (System 1) and the other responsible for reflective one (System 2). As important as this is, an elaboration of the interaction between them seems to be lacking. Philosophical pragmatism can contribute to address this want. It provides an evolutionary explanation of how people act accounting for t...

The present turning point, accentuated by the crisis, has revitalized the interdisciplinary study of economics and determined the reconsideration of its fundamental bases as a social science. The economists have abandoned the traditional neoclassical sphere and have directed towards understanding the behaviour resorting to psychology and developing in this manner a new field - behavioural economics. This article examines whether this economic sub-discipline is a viable research direction and the extent to which it may increase the explanatory power of science by providing a realistic database ...

In the late 40-ies of XX c., Claude Shannon developed the formula for the information unit, the bit. Since then, the problem concerning the informative essence of the economic processes and the phenomena in general initiated a new direction in science. However, the information theory has still remained undeveloped. The current article makes a modest attempt to make clarifications about the said theoretical direction.

The rise of behavioural approaches in economics has been one of most significant developments in the study of economic decision-making in recent years. The increasingly acknowledged failings of standard models of choice to explain economic decisions has prompted economists to incorporate into their analysis psychological insights into individual behaviour, such as social cognitive and emotional biases. This book introduces the topic of behavioural economics to a beginning readership, explaining its approach and methodology and assessing its successes and weaknesses. The book begins by tracing ...

We analyse an overlapping generations economy with two sectors of production: a capital-intensive commodity sector and a labour-intensive services sector. First, we consider an economy with exogenous population and study the effects of a change in the individual preference for old-aged services that causes a reallocation of labour between sectors on per capita income. Then, we compare the results with the standard Diamond (1965) style one-sector economy. Second, we endogenise fertility founding that a reallocation of labour in favour of the services sector causes an additional beneficial effec...

Abstract  Dissertation Juliane A. Lischka, HS 2014, Universitat Zurich  Abstract  This  cumulative  dissertation  relates  three  core  objects  of  investigation  within  mass  communication  research by means of the economy.  a) Economic news:   News topics, tone, consonance, and volume;  b) Economic sentiment:   Evaluations and expectations for the economic situation of the general  public and economic experts;  c) Economic behavior:  Purchase intention, sales and corporate advertising expenditures.  Economic news not only reports on the economy but can also influence its develop...

Preface Introduction The Economy as a Machine The Pretence of Knowledge Economics and Politics Economics and Business From Mechanical to Biological Analogies The Economy as a Human Complex Adaptive System The Co-ordination of Economic Activity The Evolution of Economic Institutions The Lessons of History Patterns in Economic Activity Adaptation in the Market Economy Implications for Economics Implications for Business and Government The Future of the Market Economy Conclusions Notes Inde

We conduct an experiment to study how beliefs about behavioral responses to taxation and preferences over equality–e iciency trade-o s relate to the political disagreement on redistribution. We use a novel method to elicit incentivized beliefs from a sample of 13,900 Americans about how taxes a ect people’s e ort choices, and we elicit incentivized equality–e iciency preferences. We find that Democrats and Republicans have virtually identical beliefs about behavioral responses to taxation. Furthermore, we find that beliefs about behavioral responses to taxation fail to predict people’s support...

Behavioural and experimental economics are part of an increasingly pluralistic mainstream economics, sharing with other recently established research programmes the revision of fundamental assumptions of the previously dominant neoclassical economics research programme. The recent proliferation and consolidation of these new approaches creates the possibility for the emergence of a new orthodoxy of economics, i.e. a new general research programme capable of replacing neoclassicism. The goal of this paper is to investigate the potential contribution of behavioural and experimental economics to ...

This paper examines Hayek’s version of methodological individualism in relation to individual economic actions and economic effectiveness (social actions). According to this approach, economic and social order is determined by the myriad atomistic actions that are the result of individual planning taking into consideration the idiosyncratic nature of knowledge. Economic policy is a form of social planning which is not only ineffective but also has cataclysmic long‐lasting effects, creating a disorder in the market system. Two arguments are made in this study. First, methodological individualis...

Behavioral economics provides a common language system and platform for the cooperation and dialogues between economists and psychologists.Psychologists have provided distinct understandings and insights about the human nature of Economic Man,the essence of reason and the consistency and inversion of behavioral preferences.Along with opposition and criticisms,it is inevitable that more integration and consensus are to be found between economy and psychology in the future.

A brief survey of results of games played by players with different bounded recall capacities, in particular those indicating surprisingly strong relations between memory and entropy in the study of the min-max values of repeated games with bounded recall are presented.

Hans-W. Micklitz searches for the politics of behavioural economics of law. It implies a need to place behavioural law and economics into context – historically, politically, philosophically, theoretically and methodologically. The overall argument is that it is economic efficiency that stands predominantly behind behavioural law and economics, insinuates a value change away from the social and from the role of law, affects the autonomy of the individual and disconnects her from the society. Behavioural law and economics is more than a research tool; it is a normative theory if not a social th...

Abstract: Some notable economists believe that Economics is of normative science, which always focuses on the 'what should be' statement. Therefore it is included in the science of ethics, considering that it discusses an attitude of an individual in economic activity. Unfortunately, modern economics born from the womb of Western Civilization was influenced by Utilitarianism which is undoubtedly contradictary to Islam. This certainly will create problems in the future for Muslims, especially in economic activities both on an individual and social scale. This article will discuss how the behavi...

Over the past five years, behavioural economics has been rapidly propelled from the margins of economic analysis towards the policy mainstream. In this context, this study offers an international review of the initial applications of behavioural economics to policy, with a particular focus on regulatory policy. It describes the extent to which behavioural findings have begun to influence public policy in a number of OECD countries, referring to a total of more than 60 instances, the majority of which concern regulatory policy.

1. Behavioural economics and bounded rationality Chapter 2. Recent developments in the behavioural economics literature: a survey 3. Recent developments in the bounded rationality literature: a survey 4. Audiences and impact 5. Commonality and differentiation: examined and evaluated 6. Towards an abstract behavioural framework 7. Concluding thoughts

This thesis investigates what motivates people to protect the environment and protect themselves from environmental risks. Specifically, the essays aim to enhance our understanding of how individual and situational factors drive decision-making in three areas that lie at the heart of behavioural environmental economics: contributions towards protecting public goods like biodiversity, choices under risk from environmental externalities like air pollution, and cooperation over shared common pool resources. The overarching goal of the thesis is to unpack the complex processes behind decision maki...

The game theory and economic behaviour is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly.

Abstract Scitovsky is known as a forerunner of behavioural economics simply because he drew heavily on psychology and claimed that people’s choices may be ‘joyless’ (Scitovsky, The joyless economy, 1976). However, a careful reformulation of his analysis shows that he anticipated a number of insights (also with respect to Kahneman’s ‘two-systems of thought’) which suggest new lines of inquiry from an original and different perspective. These insights of Scitovsky regard the following aspects: Uncertainty as a condition where the outcomes of choosing a particular option (novelty) is partially un...

This article examines the insights into how people actually behave from behavioural economics and how this affects economic explanation and prescription. It argues that implications for explanation are likely always to be contestable (because, as a new source of empirical evidence, behavioural economics encounters familiar problems with empiricism). The implications for prescription, however, are potentially significant, although not in the direction popularised by 'nudging'. Indeed, the behavioural insights suggest that public policy should be less concerned with forms of preference satisfact...

The paper criticises psychologism, i.e. the idea that economics is a science of behaviour or that it must be rooted in such a science. The argument is based on Hayek and Popper's thesis that economics studies spontaneous order. First, it is argued that if economics is to retain its traditional distance from psychology, it has to abandon the notion that it is concerned with behaviour. Then it is shown that there is no simple one-way causation from the psychological to the social and that the study of spontaneous order must be non-psychological. Further, an attempt is made to clarify some misund...

This paper attempts to bring some central insights from behavioural economics into the economics of climate change. In particular, it discusses (i) implications of prospect theory, the equity premium puzzle, and time-inconsistent preferences in the choice of discount rate used in climate-change cost assessments, and (ii) the implications of various kinds of social preferences for the outcome of climate negotiations. Several reasons are presented for why it appears advisable to choose a substantially lower social discount rate than the average return on investments. It also seems likely that ta...

Η παρούσα διατριβή προσφέρει μια κριτική ανάλυση ως προς τη θέση της εξουσίας στην οικονομική θεωρία και πράξη, εστιάζοντας σε ζητήματα της σύγχρονης πολιτικής οικονομίας. Διερευνάται η χρήση τής έννοιας τής εξουσίας στη σχετική βιβλιογραφία, και κατόπιν αξιολογούνται ορισμένοι τρόποι μέσω των οποίων διαμορφώνεται το οικονομικό υποκείμενο, η οικονομία και η ευρύτερη κοινωνική πραγματικότητα. Έμφαση δίνεται στο συστημικό επίπεδο, εξετάζοντας τις πηγές, τις μορφές, τις λειτουργίες και τους διαφορετικούς τρόπους διάρθρωσης τής εξουσίας σε συγκεκριμένα πολιτικοοικονομικά πλαίσια. Αντλώντας από το ...

This textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Evolutionary Game Theory covers recent developments in the field, with an emphasis on economic contexts and applications, and develops a theoretical framework suitable for the study of social and economic phenomena from an evolutionary perspective.

Behavioural economics is becoming a popular source for business change management strategy and understanding why businesses fail. Behavioural Economics allows business to focus on the human and relationship capital as well as the financials. In this paper we explore the relationship between traditional economics and behavioural science and by applying both to business change management clear thinking can be demonstrated in the decision making processes.

The connection between economics and ethics is as old as economics itself, and central to both disciplines. It is an issue that has recently attracted much interest from economists and philosophers. The connection is, in part, a result of the desire of economists to make policy prescriptions, which clearly require some normative criteria. More deeply, much economic theory is founded on the assumption of utility maximization, thereby creating an immediate connection between the foundations of economics and the philosophical literature on utilitarianism and reasons for action. In fact, some infl...

Esta tesis consiste de tres capitulos en los ambitos de economia del comportamiento y economia de la educacion. Los primeros dos capitulos estudian los efectos de pares, el primero testea la presencia de efectos de pares dentro de grupos de golfistas mientras el segundo provee predicciones sobre como las acciones de los individuos pueden ser afectadas por las caracteristicas de sus pares. Los efectos de pares son de interes en muchos ambitos pero especialmente en educacion donde existe mucho debate sobre la separacion de estudiantes entre clases y escuelas por habilidad (Duflo et al (2011)). E...

Standardizing governmental economic behaviour is the requirements of realizing modern market economy—— the regulating method of "market plus government",making up government shortage and overcoming invalid government behaviour,propelling and deepening the reform of state enterprises in our country.The standardization of government economic behaviour should mainly be determined by the goal of achieving efficiency,equity and a sustained development.

The theory, background and application of behavorial in integrated care experiments is given and the creator of the term nudging,Richard Thaler received in 2017 the Nobel Prize.

Each of these pieces is a clear and simple exposition of a very different theme. Each, however, shows how deep{y embedded in social structures are the workings of economic systems; the history, values, attitudes and inter­ personal behaviour of men and women play a large part in shaping economic activities, while much social behaviour in turn is shaped or influenced by the operation of the economy. The first piece about labour-management relations in Japan was written by a Japanese social scientist during the mid-rg6os, a period during which the Japanese rate qf economic growth was outstrippin...

What impact do income and other demographic factors have on voters’ partisan choice? Using post-election surveys of 14,000 voters in ten Australian elections between 1966 and 2001, I explore the impact that individual, local and national factors have on voters’ decisions. In these ten elections, the poor, foreign-born, younger voters, voters born since 1950, men, and those who are unmarried are more likely to be left-wing. Over the past 35 years, the partisan gap between men and women has closed, but the partisan gap has widened on three dimensions: between young and old; between rich and poor...

More than a decade after the inception of the KiwiSaver scheme, 431,779 members remain in the default conservative fund into which they were automatically enrolled. These default members are in funds not consciously chosen and which may not be the most financially appropriate for them. A number of common human behavioural biases have likely contributed to why so many default members remain in the default funds. Although the fees charged by default funds are among the lowest in the market, such funds offer substantially lower returns than more growth-oriented funds. These lower returns are like...

Abstract This study is an effort in including the self-reflective view of behavioural economics into the field of health economics. With the use of the ‘Allais paradox’ modified for health outcomes, it is tested whether expected utility or rather a concept of psychological values should be used in modelling health-related human behaviour. Two experiments are conducted. The first experiment consists of a questionnaire with health-related trade-offs between different prospects, including the ‘Allais questions’ with health outcomes. With two binomial tests the predictions of both frequent ...

This study investigates the effects of crises on domestic and foreign investors’ behaviours by utilizing a nonlinear approach. Considering the nonlinearity inherent in many financial variables, this study proposes an appropriate econometric modelling for analysing the investors’ behaviour, particularly during turbulent times. Specifically, STAR-STGARCH family models and generalized impulse response function analysis (GIRF) are employed to understand the different reactions of foreign and domestic investors at the Malaysian Stock Exchange market during the 1997 Asian crisis. The results of the ...

This survey of how behavioural economics has evolved over the past century and a quarter adopts a reflexive approach as it examines factors that have affected the uptake of different variants of behavioural economics. It begins with the behavioural dimension in Marshall’s work in 1890 and moves, via work in a similar spirit undertaken by members of the Oxford Economists’ Research Group, to the research programme of Herbert Simon and his colleagues, who created the behavioural theory of the firm. It considers how, despite Simon’s 1978 Nobel Prize, the behavioural theory of the firm did not get ...

This chapter reviews a number of frequently-used computational intelligence tools in the realm of computational economics, including K nearest neighbors, K means, self-organizing maps, reinforcement learning, decision trees, evolutionary computation, swarm intelligence, and “random” behavior to see how the heuristics employed in the latter can lay a computational foundation of theHeuristics studied by the former.

This excellent two-volume collection contains the very best studies that take an economic approach to the study of judicial behaviour. The authors hail from the disciplines of business, economics, history, law, and political science, and the topics they cover are equally varied. Subjects include the judges’ motivations, judicial independence, precedent, judging on collegial courts and in the hierarchy of justice and the relationship between judges and the other government actors. Together with an original introduction by Professor Epstein, this selection of papers will be a vital tool for st...

This authoritative collection of papers on the economics of health behaviours such as smoking, drinking, drug use, and risky sex will be of particular interest to economists, social scientists and health services researchers.