Search results

Abstract
This paper explores the potential for gains from trade between Austrian and behavioral economics, with a focus on how the two schools of thoughts can constructively critique each other. Among other things, the Austrian critique of behavioral economics would urge it to jettison its restrictive and axiomatic definition of rationality, and to treat humans as active agents rather than passive recipients of environmental and cognitive influences. Meanwhile, the behavioral critique of Austrian economics would push it to take more seriously the fundamental question of how individuals arrive at choices and to analyze how such choices can interact with 'micro-institutional' choice environments.

Behavioral Science in Medicine is intended as a primary textbook for the behavioral science/psychiatry course in the first two years of medical school. Each chapter includes representative clinical case scenarios illustrating important facets of the material in that chapter. All material presented in the text will be consistent with the DSM-IV-TR

AbstractDespite widespread recognition that behavioral public policy (BPP) needs to move beyond nudging if the field is to achieve more significant impact, problem-solving approaches remain optimized to achieve tactical success and are evaluated by short-term metrics with the assumption of stable systems. As a result, current methodologies may contribute to the development of solutions that appear well formed but become 'brittle' in the face of more complex contexts if they fail to consider important contextual cues, broader system forces, and emergent conditions, which can take three distinct forms: contextual, systemic, and anticipatory brittleness. The Covid-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout present an opportunity to identify and correct interventional brittleness with a new methodological approach – strategic BPP (SBPP) – that can inform the creation of more resilient solutions by embracing more diverse forms of evidence and applied foresight, designing interventions within ecosystems, and iteratively developing solutions. To advance the case for adopting a SBPP and 'roughly right' modes of inquiry, we use the Covid-19 vaccination rollout to define a new methodological roadmap, while also acknowledging that taking a more strategic approach may challenge current BPP norms.

Seit den siebziger Jahren haben die Erkenntnisse und Forschungen der Psychologie Einzug in die Wirtschaftswissenschaften gehalten. Sie sollen das Menschenbild der Ökonomen und ihre Modelle realistischer machen. Dieses Buch beschreibt die wichtigsten Methoden, Konzepte und Erkenntnisse dieser Forschungen, der verhaltenswissenschaftlichen Ökonomik (Behavioral Economics) und weitere dazugehörige Forschungsgebiete wie Glücksforschung, Fairness und Neuroökonomie. Den in wissenschaftlichen wie allgemeinen Diskussionen zunehmenden Forderungen nach einer kritischen Überprüfung herkömmlicher ökonomischer Modelle kommt das Lehrbuch nach: Es stellt die wichtigsten theoretischen und empirischen Ideen und Befunde vor und unterzieht sie einer kritischen Würdigung. Es ist sowohl für Studierende aller sozialwissenschaftlichen Fächer geeignet als auch für Dozenten und Wissenschaftler, die sich über den Forschungsstand der Disziplin informieren wollen. Der Inhalt: Was ist Behavioral Economics? - Das "Heuristics and Biasses"-Programm - Die Prospect Theory und ihre Konsequenzen - Der schwache Mensch: Zinsen, Diäten und Sucht - Weitere Forschungsfelder: Glück, Emotionen, Fairness und Neuroökonomie - Ausgewählte Anwendungsfelder: Sozialpolitik, Behavioral Finance, liberaler Paternalismus - Ausblick: Die Renaissance der Rationalität. Der Autor Prof. Dr. Hanno Beck ist Professor für Volkswirtschaftslehre an der Hochschule Pforzheim. Nach seiner Promotion 1998 zum Dr. rer. pol. an der Universität Mainz war er zwischen 1998 und 2006 Redakteur für Wirtschaft und Finanzmärkte bei der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung bevor er sich 2006 schwerpunktmäßig wieder der Lehre zuwandte. Beck hatte zahlreiche Lehraufträge an verschiedenen deutschen Fachhochschulen und an der polnischen Warsaw School of Economics. Er ist Autor mehrerer Sach- und Fachbücher

AbstractA growing body of normative work explores whether and how deference to people's choices might be reconciled with behavioral findings about human error. This work has strong implications for economic analysis of law, cost–benefit analysis, and regulatory policy. In light of behavioral findings, regulators should adopt a working presumption in favor of respect for people's self-regarding choices, but only if those choices are adequately informed and sufficiently free from behavioral biases. The working presumption should itself be rebuttable on welfare grounds, with an understanding that the ends that people choose might make their lives go less well. For example, people might die prematurely or suffer from serious illness, and what they receive in return might not (on any plausible account of welfare) be nearly enough. The underlying reason might involve a lack of information or a behavioral bias, identifiable or not, in which case intervention can fit with the working presumption, but the real problem might involve philosophical questions about the proper understanding of welfare, and about what it means for people to have a good life.

Primate Behavioral Ecology. Karen B. Strier. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon, 2000. 392 pp.

AbstractOne of Friedrich Hayek's most important arguments pointed to the epistemic advantages of the price system, regarded as an institution. As Hayek showed, the price system incorporates the information held by numerous, dispersed people. Like John Stuart Mill, Hayek also offered an epistemic argument on behalf of freedom of choice. A contemporary challenge to that epistemic argument comes from behavioral economics, which has uncovered an assortment of reasons why choosers err, and also pointed to possible distortions in the price system. But, even if those findings are accepted, what should public institutions do? How should they proceed? A neo-Hayekian approach would seek to reduce the knowledge problem by asking what individual choosers actually do under epistemically favorable conditions. In practice, that question can be disciplined by asking five subsidiary questions: (1) What do consistent choosers, unaffected by self-evidently irrelevant factors, end up choosing? (2) What do informed choosers choose? (3) What do active choosers choose? (4) When people are free of behavioral biases, including (say) present bias or unrealistic optimism, what do they choose? (5) What do people choose when their viewscreen is broad, and they do not suffer from limited attention? These questions are illustrated with reference to the intense controversy over fuel economy standards.

This thesis consists of four independent research papers. Chapter 1 ("Media Persuasion and Consumption: Evidence from the Dave Ramsey Show") examines whether entertaining mass media programs can influence individual consumption and savings decisions. I study this question by examining the impact of the Dave Ramsey Show, an iconic US radio talk show which encourages people to spend less and save more. I combine household-level expenditure records from a large scanner panel with fine-grained information about the geographic coverage of the radio show over time. Exploiting the quasi-natural experiment created by the staggered expansion of the radio show from 2004 to 2019, I find that exposure to the radio show decreases monthly household expenditures. This effect is driven by households with initially high expenditures relative to their income. In a mechanism experiment, I document that listening to the radio show has a persistent effect on people's attitudes towards consumption and debt. My findings highlight the potential of entertaining mass media programs for interventions aimed at changing people's financial decisions. Chapter 2 ("Do People Demand Fact-Checked News? Evidence from U.S. Democrats", joint work with Ingar Haaland and Christopher Roth) studies how the demand for a newsletter about an economic relief plan changes when the newsletter content is fact-checked. In a large-scale online experiment with U.S. Democrats, we first document an overall muted demand for fact-checking when the newsletter features stories from an ideologically aligned source, even though fact-checking increases the perceived accuracy of the newsletter. The average impact of fact-checking masks substantial heterogeneity by ideology: fact-checking reduces demand among Democrats with strong ideological views and increases demand among ideologically moderate Democrats. Furthermore, fact-checking increases demand among all Democrats when the newsletter features stories from an ideologically non-aligned source. Chapter 3 ("Fighting ...