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.