Increasingly, economists are becoming aware of this - there has been a significant move toward so-called behavioral economics within the profession. This approach, as the name suggests, pays a lot more attention to how people actually behave. Unfortunately, behavioral economists have yet to generate anything with the explanatory and predictive power of “the model” that is taught in Economics 101, and so the latter continues to exercise its intoxicating (and sometimes toxic) influence on the minds of the young... from Economics Without Illusions: Debunking the Myths of Modern Capitalism by Joseph Heath
Camden Market, London (2014-05-22)
Comment:
I spent most of my professional life teaching Organizational Behaviour to business students. Invariably, several of my office neighbours, up and down the hallway, were economists. My conversations with these colleagues lead me to the conclusion that, conceptually, they led a charmed life. Meanwhile, my Organizational Behaviour colleagues, steeped in models adapted from Social Psychology, Anthropology, Political Science, and Economics lived in a complex world.
Our models were many. Rarely would one model or theory account for observed behaviour. Rarely could one theoretical framework prove adequate to the task of predicting behaviour. Our world was complicated by a multitude of contingencies. Our students were stopped short if their case analyses didn't start with "it depends."
Meanwhile, the economists had a relatively simple model (confounded by a profusion of mathematics); monetary incentives.
If only life were that simple!
