Pere Mir-Artigues

El artículo aborda el actual estado de la cuestión en psicología económica, o también economía del comportamiento. Tras un breve repaso de las bases de la teoría de la decisión económica y los dos principales programas de investigación, se abordan los resultados consolidados de la disciplina (especialmente la eficacia de las heurísticas), los aspectos que requieren ser mejorados (como la definición de los contextos más propicios a las diversas heurísticas) y los retos pendientes, especialmente la incorporación de la incertidumbre.

This chapter describes the three major patterns of economic decision-making, i.e., heuristics, deliberation, and the transfer of decisional power, as well as their multiple algorithms, which are studied in detail. There are two further sections: one on the comparative effectiveness of heuristic algorithms versus rational computational methods, and the one on people’s understanding of probabilistic phenomena.

"Decisions, Preferences, and Heuristics" published on 04 Aug 2023 by Edward Elgar Publishing.

This enlightening book comprehensively maps the current state of economic psychology and behavioural economics. Exploring key concepts, topics and models in the field, it is also a launching pad for future research and provides useful insights on how good personal and professional decisions can be made, advancing microeconomic discourse.

This enlightening book comprehensively maps the current state of economic psychology and behavioural economics. Exploring key concepts, topics and models in the field, it is also a launching pad for future research and provides useful insights on how good personal and professional decisions can be made, advancing microeconomic discourse.

This chapter describes in detail the major factors that frame economic decisions, i.e. preferences, beliefs, emotions, and memory, as well as their complex connections with each other. A subchapter on risk and uncertainty, another on inter-temporal decisions, and a final one on the planning fallacy and the endowment effect are added.

This chapter explains the difference between problem-solving and decision-making. The key concepts of decision analysis are defined, with special attention to the concepts of preference, heuristics, and algorithms.

The chapter proposes a less strict definition of rationality than that currently used in economic models, i.e., axiomatic rationality, and hence a list of psychological cases of irrationality.

The first part of this chapter presents an innovative seminal model on consumption decisions based on the way preferences were defined and certain heuristic algorithms described in the previous chapters and, in the second part of the chapter, the main methods for modifying final preferences, especially priming, framing and anchoring, are explained.

The relationship between economics and psychology is described from the end of the 18th century to the present day. Three stages are identified: that of the first marginalist authors up to Pareto, the one characterized by the expected utility axioms proposed by von Neumann and Morgenstern, and the last phase due to the work of Simon and others from 1950 onwards. In this last stage, the two main research programs are described: the “biases and heuristics” (Kahneman and followers) and the “ecological rationality” (or also “fast-and-frugal heuristics”) (Gigerenzer and colleagues). Finally, the types of experiments carried out in economic psychology are explained.