Book Tip No. 32 (2018): RICHARD THALER: MISBEHAVING. WHAT BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS REVEALS ABOUT OUR DECISIONS
Munich 2018.
When economists deal with psychological questions, a healthy dose of skepticism is generally appropriate. After all, the Homo Oeconomicus as an attempt by economics to create a (psychological) image of man does not do justice to reality in any way. Economics has clung to this too strictly for far too long.
Behavioral economics is the comprehensive attempt to correct this error. It delves into the field of highly exciting psychological questions, using experimental approaches to refute the assumptions of (neo-) classical economics, sometimes even leading them ad absurdum. This is of course a highly amusing undertaking, and in addition to Richard Thaler, authors like Kahnemann and Tversky have made many important contributions.
In this book, Richard Thaler essentially provides a historical overview of his own research on this subject area. This is a very readable summary of several decades of scientific work. The personal and scientific cross-connections to authors like Kahnemann, Tversky and others become clear. The presentation thus also has autobiographical traits, which does not detract from the reading pleasure. A certain self-ironic distance is what characterizes Thaler’s writing style. Very worth reading.
Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof
