Structure and Behavior A Fork in the Road for Economics结构和行为的一个岔路口的经济学.ppt

* Sunder, Structure and Behavior * Optimization Principle Imported into Economics Humans and human systems as objects of economic analysis Conflict between mechanical application of optimization principle and our self-esteem (free will) Optimization principle interpreted as a behavioral principle, shifting focus from aggregate to individual behavior Cognitive science: we are not good at optimizing Willingness among economists to abandon the optimization principle * Sunder, Structure and Behavior * Dropping the “Infinite Faculties” Assumption Conlisk: Empirical evidence in favor of bounded rationality Empirical evidence on importance of bounded rationality Proven track record of bounded rationality models (in explaining individual behavior) Unconvincing logic of unbounded rationality All these reasons focus on the “trees” not “forest” * Sunder, Structure and Behavior * Equilibrium and Simon Simon in the third edition of The Sciences of the Artificial wrote: “This skyhook-skyscraper construction of science from the roof down to the yet unconstructed foundations was possible because the behavior of the system at each level depended on only a very approximate, simplified, abstracted characterization of the system at the level next beneath. This is lucky, else the safety of bridges and airplanes might depend on the correctness of the ‘Eightfold Way’ of looking at elementary particles.” Indeed, the powerful results of economic theory were derived from “a very approximate, simplified, abstracted characterization of the system at the level next beneath,”—the economic man so maligned, and its scientific purpose and role so misunderstood, by many who claim to be followers of Simon * Sunder, Structure and Behavior * Economics: Structural or Behavioral Economics can be usefully thought of as a behavioral science in the sense physicists study the “behavior” of marbles and photons Given the pride we take in attributing the endowment of free will to ourselves, this interpret