Not your father's economics
Some of the sexiest research in economics today is coming out of a field called behavioral decision research.
What is it? Here’s how Carnegie Mellon University describes their excellent program:
“Behavioral decision research (BDR) is an interdisciplinary field that draws on insights from psychology and economics to provide a descriptively more realistic picture of human decision making.
“BDR shares with economics the idea that human behavior can be understood as a purposeful attempt to achieve well-being. It shares with psychology the ideas that social contexts shape thought, that people have limited information-processing capacity, and that systematic deviations from “rational choice” can be predicted.
“The combination of these perspectives leads BDR to focus on ways that real-world decision making deviates from the stylized assumptions of economics—and on ways in which performance might be improved.”
Go browse some working papers here and here.
As we’ve seen with the development of the field of law & economics during the last four decades, knowing a little economics and a lot of anything else produces very creative and interesting stuff.
Go check out CMU’s program—sounds like a fun place for grad work if you fit that description.
[Thanks to James Wilson for the pointer.]
Posted by Andrew on Tuesday March 23, 2004 | Feedback?
