Abstract
Rationality is a complex behavioral theory that can be parsed into statements about preferences, perceptions, and process. This paper looks at the evidence on rationality that is provided by behavioral experiments, and argues that most cognitive anomalies operate through errors in perception that arise from the way information is stored, retrieved, and processed, or through errors in process that lead to formulation of choice problems as cognitive tasks that are inconsistent at least with rationality narrowly defined. The paper discusses how these cognitive anomalies influence economic behavior and measurement, and their implications for economic analysis.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Amos Tversky, whose brilliant life profoundly influenced psychology and economics. In the subject known as Behavioral Decision Theory, Tversky’s hand appears everywhere, through his papers, and through his ingenious and definitive experiments that have made clear the importance of heuristics and judgment in human cognition. He will be counted among the great minds of the 20th Century. It was a delight and an education to have been his friend.
Early versions of this paper were presented at the European Meetings of the Econometric Society, Istanbul, 1996, and at the NSF Symposium on Eliciting Preferences, University of California, Berkeley, July 1997. I have benefitted from discussions and comments from Moshe Ben-Akiva, Baruch Fischhoff, Tommy Garling, Danny Kahneman, Mark Machina, Charles Manski, John Payne, and Drazen Prelec. Research support from the E. Morris Cox Fund, and assistance for preparation of the paper from the Santa Fe Institute, are gratefully acknowledged.
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McFadden, D., Machina, M.J., Baron, J. (1999). Rationality for Economists?. In: Fischhoff, B., Manski, C.F. (eds) Elicitation of Preferences. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1406-8_4
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