Beyond behavioral economics: who is the economic man

Carlos Obregón Díaz

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: There are two reasons to go beyond Behavioral Economics. The first reason is that humans, as presented by this school, do not explain many critical economic problems. Behavioral Economics is not an alternative paradigm to traditional economics. It is only one of the New Schools of thought, that has risen due to the failure of the contemporary Neoclassical School to show that markets have a unique maximum welfare full employment equilibrium. Therefore, in order to delimit Behavioral Economics ́ contributions we need to look at the whole paradigm in economics, which today includes: the contemporary neoclassical paradigm plus all the New Schools of thought. The second reason is that humans, as described by Behavioral Economics, are not a good representation of mans ́ evolutionary characteristics. For Behavioral Economics, humans are emotional beings which often do not know what is best for them, and need the help of the government to make the choices which are truly convenient; and they display altruistic and social cooperative behavior, even in monetary transactions. But evolutionarily we are neither design to be emotional or rational, nor to be selfish or altruistic and socially cooperative. We are design to be flexible for survival purposes, and to display a wide range of behaviors.

Keywords: Behavioral; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 A12 A13 B0 D0 D00 D1 D10 D11 G1 G10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-10-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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