Behavioral Economics: A History

Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics

by Floris Heukelom

This book presents a history of behavioral economics. The recurring theme is that behavioral economics reflects and contributes to a fundamental reorientation of the epistemological foundations upon which economics had been based since the days of Smith, Ricardo, and Mill. With behavioral economics, the discipline has shifted from grounding its theories in generalized characterizations to building theories from behavioral assumptions directly amenable to empirical validation and refutation. The book proceeds chronologically and takes the reader from von Neumann and Morgenstern's axioms of rational behavior, through the incorporation of rational decision theory in psychology in the 1950s–1970s, and to the creation and rise of behavioral economics in the 1980s and 1990s at the Sloan and Russell Sage Foundations.

Genres: Economics

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Niklas Laninge · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too nerdy for me. But if you want to know the history of a small but important discipline within psychology and economics this is the book for you. The last chapter ties it all together in a comprehensive way.