The ruin of Homo Oeconomicus

Jan-Willem Van der Rijt

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In this paper it is shown that the most rational of all creatures, Homo Oeconomicus, can be enticed to freely engage in an activity that is guaranteed to lead to his ruin. It is furthermore shown that this is possible if and only if utility functions are unbounded. The paper thus develops an argument in favour of bounded utility functions.

JEL-codes: J1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 9 pages
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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