Striving for Balance in Economics : Towards a Theory of the Social Determination of Behavior
This paper is an attempt to broaden economic discourse by importing insights into human behavior not just from psychology, but also from sociology and anthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker in standard economics is the rational act...
Main Authors: | , |
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Format: | Working Paper |
Language: | English en_US |
Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/01/25814159/striving-balance-economics-towards-theory-social-determination-behavior http://hdl.handle.net/10986/23704 |
Summary: | This paper is an attempt to broaden
economic discourse by importing insights into human behavior
not just from psychology, but also from sociology and
anthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker in
standard economics is the rational actor and, in early work
in behavioral economics, the quasi-rational actor influenced
by the context of the moment of decision-making, in some
recent work in behavioral economics the decision-maker could
be called the enculturated actor. This actor's
preferences, perception, and cognition are subject to two
deep social influences: (a) the social contexts to which he
has become exposed and, especially, accustomed; and (b) the
cultural mental models—including categories, identities,
narratives, and worldviews—that he uses to process
information. The paper traces how these factors shape
individual behavior through the endogenous determination of
preferences and the lenses through which individuals see the
world—their perception and interpretation of situations. The
paper offers a tentative taxonomy of the social determinants
of behavior and describes the results of controlled and
natural experiments that only a broader view of these
determinants can plausibly explain. The perspective suggests
more realistic models of human behavior for explaining
outcomes and designing policies. |
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