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Rule-Following, Expertise, and Rationality: A New Behavioral Economics?

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Rationality in Economics: Alternative Perspectives

Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought Series ((RETH,volume 62))

Abstract

The mainstream conception of economic action as rational maximizing has been under attack at least since Veblen. What has been lacking, however, is an alternative—or at least partly alternative—account that remedies many of the faults to which critics point without at the same time obliterating the many tangible benefits of the mainstream approach. This essay argues that a new model of action may be emerging that qualifies as such a (partial) alternative. In what follows, I examine both the strong and weak forms of the rational-behavior model as well as several recent competitors.

In writing this paper, I benefited from the comments of Chrysostomos Mantzavinos as well as of the participants in the conference on “Abandoning the Hypothesis of Omniscience in Economics: What are the Implications?” January 9-10, 1997, Fribourg, Switzerland.

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Authors
  1. Richard N. Langlois
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, R3T 2N2

    Ken Dennis

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Langlois, R.N. (1998). Rule-Following, Expertise, and Rationality: A New Behavioral Economics?. In: Dennis, K. (eds) Rationality in Economics: Alternative Perspectives. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 62. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4862-7_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-4862-7_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6037-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-4862-7

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