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Jones, Owen D. --- "Why Behavioral Economics isn’t better, and how it could be" [2018] ELECD 225; in Teitelbaum, C. Joshua; Zeiler, Kathryn (eds), "Research Handbook on Behavioral Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 476

Book Title: Research Handbook on Behavioral Law and Economics

Editor(s): Teitelbaum, C. Joshua; Zeiler, Kathryn

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781849805674

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Why Behavioral Economics isn’t better, and how it could be

Author(s): Jones, Owen D.

Number of pages: 29

Abstract/Description:

What’s holding Behavioral Economics back? And what can be done about it? The fields of Behavioral Economics and Behavioral Law and Economics have each supplied important and useful insights. But the state of knowledge has changed rapidly across the decades since Tversky and Kahneman first highlighted how people sometimes systematically depart from predictions of the standard expected utility model in neoclassical economics. Those changes now render it uncomfortably obvious that Behavioral Economics, and those who rely on it, are falling behind with respect to new developments in other disciplines that also bear directly on the very same mysteries of human decision-making. This chapter identifies four problems for Behavioral Economics. It explores their causes. It then suggests and illustrates ways around them, including a path for integrating multi-disciplinary insights. The chapter provides concrete recommendations that can help to move these important schools of thought forward, in light of developments in other fields.