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Honestly, I really don't really like this pick. Behavioral economics is extremely popular, especially outside economists themselves. But the problem is that it
by nickik 9y ago
Honestly, I really don't really like this pick.
Behavioral economics is extremely popular, especially outside economists themselves. But the problem is that it keeps repeating the same findings. We get it, people are not rational. You can read 150 year old economics books that mention these things. There is a 'behavioral economics' movement every 40 year.
The research that I find 100x more interesting is the research that actually looks at real world institutions and tries to figure out how it is possible that these things work even if you assume irrational humans. Why can you get almost anything delivered in 2 days if every single human in the chain is highly irrational.
The Nobel in 2009 was about those sort of things, but they don't get enough attention.
- bluetwo 9y ago"Limited rationality" not "highly irrational". The traditional economic view is people act in their own self-interest. I would summarize this research by saying people act in their own perceived self-interest. Lots of times the two align, but there are cases when they don't, which I do find interesting and worthy of research.
- nickik 9y agoPoint taken. I think the research is very valid and interesting. I just question if this is most importent, or just a whats by far the most popular economics subject in the mainstream. Its a good PR move for the constent critics economics suffer from.