Basic Instinct

Pete Lunn from the ESRI has recently launched an overview of behavioural economics entitled "Basic Instincts: Human Nature and the New Economics".

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Basic-Instincts-Human-Nature-Economics/dp/0462099202

It is divided in to ten chapters which i give a very short summary of below. The blog isnt the place for a full review but i enjoyed reading it and would certainly recommend the type of people who read this blog put this on their summer reading list. Worth looking at the "people who read this have also read" section on Amazon also. I ordered a few more books while i was looking at this.

1. Believe it when you see it: This is a semi-autobiographical motivation of the book

2. Marketopia versus Muddleton: This overviews two contrasting views of how people behave

3. We have been misled: MISLED is an acronym for Luck, Mistakes, Surprises, Dishonesty, Events and Information all of which, along with rationality, can influence outcomes in bargains

4. What you dont know can hurt you: This overviews a number of rationality deviations

5. Establishing the motive: This examines trust, selfishness and a number of other emotions associated with various real-world games

6. The Elephant on the Corner Billboard: Examines advertising

7 .When in company: Examines organisational behaviour and incentives

8. Business is big...very big: Examines market structure

9. Governing principles: Behavioural macroeconomics

10. Corners and turning points: Behavioural Economics as Scientific Revolution

Further Reading: Useful references to the literature