Friday, October 05, 2007

why economics is great

further evidence on the greatness of economics. how one humble theorist is saving the world

http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uctprsp/savingtheworld.htm

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Spiegler has an interesting article on revealed preferences and behavioural economics; he mentions Gul and Pesendorfer's model of self-control preferences. Michael might be interested in this.
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~uctprsp/revpref.pdf

Abstract

Non-standard decision models are often inconsistent with a narrow version of
the revealed preference principle, according to which “utility maximization and
observed choice are synonymous”. One possible response to this state of a¤airs is
that the revealed preference principle is irrelevant if it con‡icts with a model in
which the theorist puts a lot of faith thanks to psychological evidence. Another
response is that the narrow version of the principle should be retained and used
as a criterion for evaluating decision models. I discuss these two points of view,
using as a template two well-known classes of decision models. The …rst point
of view is examined in light of a class of models in which the decision maker's
subjective belief is a carrier of utility. The second point of view is discussed in
the context of Gul and Pesendorfer's model of self-control preferences.