Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?: The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary

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1. Introduction
2. Does Economic Theory Work?
3. Why Is The World So Irrational?
4. Does Economic Theory Fail?
5. You Can Fool Some Of The People...
6. Behavioral Theories I: Biases and Irrationality
7. Behavioral Theories II: Time and Uncertainty
8. Learning and Friends
9. Conclusion: Psychology, Neuroscience and Economics

David K. Levine currently holds the Joint Chair in Economics within the Department of Economics and Robert Schuman Center at the European University Institute. He previously held the position of John H. Biggs Distinguished Professor of Economics at Washington University in St. Louis. He is currently serving as President of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory. He is also a fellow of the Econometric Society, an Economic Theory Fellow, a research associate of the NBER, and of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, managing editor of NAJ Economics, and co-director of the MISSEL laboratory. His scientific research is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. He is the author of Against Intellectual Monopoly (with Michele Boldrin) and Learning in Games (with Drew Fudenberg) and the editor of several conference volumes. He has published extensively in professional journals, including The American Economic Review, Econometrica, The Review of Economic Studies, The Journal of Political Economy, The Journal of Economic Theory, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, and The American Political Science Review.

Levine's current research interests include the study of intellectual property and endogenous growth in dynamic general equilibrium models, models of self-control, of the endogenous formation of preferences, institutions and social norms, learning in games, evolutionary game theory, virtual economies, and the application of game theory to experimental economics. At the graduate level, his teaching focuses on economic dynamics; at the undergraduate level, he teaches intermediate level microeconomics, focusing largely on elementary game theory.

© David K. Levine

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Levine, David K. Is Behavioral Economics Doomed?: The Ordinary versus the Extraordinary. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2012, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0021

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Any behavioral economists wondering why behavioral economics is not widely embraced by the traditional areas of economics should read this book. Any traditional economists feeling some skepticism about behavioral economics but not sure why should read this book. Levine looks at major results claimed by behavioral economists. He argues that behavioral economists often ignore a long history of similar ideas already present in traditional economics. He points to serious empirical weaknesses in behavioral theories arguing that behavioral economists have fallen short in interpreting experimental data and have built theoretical frameworks based on results that are not replicable.