Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope? An Answer

Alexandre Truc ()
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Alexandre Truc: GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur

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Abstract: In June of 2010, a special issue in the Journal of Economic Methodology was introduced with the question: "Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope?" (Marchionni and Vromen, 2010). More than ten years later, it is time to provide an answer. Using a variety of sources ranging from Web of Science to EconLit, I assess the importance of neuroeconomics as a research program in economics. I show that after a rapid increase in interest in the early 2000s, neuroeconomics decreased in importance beginning in the 2010s, especially compared with the continuing rise of behavioral economics. Here, I explore a number of explanations for this decline in interest. Then, I compare neuroeconomics with behavioral economics to emphasize key points of divergence in how these programs were constructed at the frontiers of economics. Most notably, I show that neuroeconomists were more confrontational in their approach to economics, more focused on programmatic writings with few theoretical contributions, and importantly, more oriented towards neuroscience rather than economics.

Keywords: interdisciplinarity; neuroeconomics; behavioral economics; psychology; neuroscience; interdisciplinarité; neuroéconomie; économie comportementale; psychologie; neurosciences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-evo, nep-hme and nep-mac
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Published in Œconomia - History/Methodology/Philosophy, 2023, 13 (2), pp.239-277. ⟨10.4000/oeconomia.15489⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04719266

DOI: 10.4000/oeconomia.15489

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