Saturday, January 05, 2008

Perception of Behavioral Economics

David Leonhardt, in the 2 January edition of the New York Times, describes behavioral economics as "a left-leaning academic movement that has challenged traditional neoclassical economics over the last few decades." I never thought of behavioral economics as particularly leftist.

(Peter Dorman comments on other aspects Leonhardt's article.)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah well, but anything that challenges or distracts the central verity of Economics (that income is determined solely by productivity) must be a leftish or even socialist insinuation...

I suspect that you are still not fully appreciating how crucially important that central verity is to some political arguments.

Anonymous said...

Blissex,

Really? I would think Robert would be among the last to be that way. Though I suppose he could feel strongly about the issue and still be charmingly naive about the extent and depth of its implications for politics.

Speaking of which, do you know of any in-depth critiques of the claimed connection between income and productivity? My own position is one of extreme skepticism, but I'd like to know more.

Robert Vienneau said...

My commentators are more radical than I.

Perhaps anonymous would like James Galbraith's popular summary of his research findings, as presented in the reference given in the following post.