Robert Sugden: "Reconciling normative and behavioural economics without assuming an inner rational agent"

  • Datum: 1 december 2023, kl. 13.15–15.00
  • Plats: Zoom (kontakta Mattias Forsgren för länk)
  • Typ: Seminarium
  • Föreläsare: Robert Sugden, School of Economics, University of East Anglia
  • Arrangör: Institutionen för Psykologi, Avdelningen för perceptions- och kognitionspsykologi
  • Kontaktperson: Mattias Forsgren


Abstract
Neoclassical economics assumes that individuals have stable and context-independent preferences, and uses preference-satisfaction as a normative criterion.  By calling this assumption into question, behavioural findings cause fundamental problems for normative economics.  A common response to these problems is to treat deviations from conventional rational-choice theory as mistakes, and to try to reconstruct the preferences that individuals would have acted on, had they reasoned correctly.  I argue that his approach implicitly uses a dualistic model of the human being, in which an inner rational agent is trapped in an outer psychological shell.  This model is psychologically and philosophically problematic.  I propose an alternative approach in which the normative criterion is the existence of opportunities for voluntary transactions between individuals.

FÖLJ UPPSALA UNIVERSITET PÅ

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