An Economic Theory of Hope and Leadership

Abstract

In an important survey article, Elster (1998) has posed the following question to the economics profession: ‘How can emotions help us explain behavior for which good explanations seem to be lacking?’ In order to address this issue, Elster has explored the field of emotion theory in psychology to find the answers it provides to a number of subsidiary questions. These include the following: (i) ‘What emotions are there?’; (ii) ‘What are emotions?’; (iii) ‘Can we choose our emotions or can we only choose to seek out or avoid situations that give rise to particular emotions?’; (iv) ‘How do we induce particular emotions or inculcate particular emotional dispositions in others?’; and (v) ‘Can emotions improve decisionmaking?’