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Behavioral Economics has only gotten "so popular" in non-academic circles. This is mostly due to the quasi-science of economics where we try to mathematically
by chasedehan 8y ago
Behavioral Economics has only gotten "so popular" in non-academic circles. This is mostly due to the quasi-science of economics where we try to mathematically model the world. These "cute Freakonomics" type studies, while publishable in some outlets, haven't even come close to displacing traditional microeconomic foundations in mainstream economics.
I'm an Economics PhD and former professor and most of the research isn't taken very seriously. Everyone acknowledges that people don't behave "rationally", but no one yet has been able to figure out how to build these behavioral assumptions into a working model that is actionable.
- gowld 8y agoAren't "loot boxes" and casinos and the free-to-play game industry a great example of behavioral economics in action?
- alephnil 8y agoThat some businesses have figured out how to exploit people's irrationality does not mean that economists have a good model for how actual people behave, and how it differs from rational behaviour.
- zoomablemind 8y agoWhat are the expectations for such actionable economic models? To improve predictability or to better the management of resources in human societies? Indirectly, it's a question about the optimization goal that the mainstream models are trying to achieve.
- your-nanny 8y agoNo one takes behavioral econo.ics seriously? Well maybe stodgy old school economists who are more mathmetician than social and behavioral scientists. But there are lots of serious scientists using ideas from behavioral economics to study the brain and get published in outlets like Nature and Nature Neuroscience. psh!