The Economics of the Mind

The Economics of the Mind PDF Author: Salvatore Rizzello
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Psychology must be taken into greater account in making the assumptions underlying economic theory congruent with how people actually make choices guiding behavior, according to this move away from the neoclassical paradigm. Rizzello (economics, U. of Torino, Italy) analyzes the debate raging since the 1930s over the role of knowledge between the Walrasian "objective" approach and Austrian School exponents such as Hayek, who acknowledged the partly unconscious nature of decision-making. The author then traces the development of neo-institutionalism, experimental economics, and evolutionary economics exemplified by the new theory of the firm; and discusses implications of the neurobiological approach. First published as L'Economia Della Mente (1997). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Economics of the Mind

The Economics of the Mind PDF Author: Salvatore Rizzello
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Psychology must be taken into greater account in making the assumptions underlying economic theory congruent with how people actually make choices guiding behavior, according to this move away from the neoclassical paradigm. Rizzello (economics, U. of Torino, Italy) analyzes the debate raging since the 1930s over the role of knowledge between the Walrasian "objective" approach and Austrian School exponents such as Hayek, who acknowledged the partly unconscious nature of decision-making. The author then traces the development of neo-institutionalism, experimental economics, and evolutionary economics exemplified by the new theory of the firm; and discusses implications of the neurobiological approach. First published as L'Economia Della Mente (1997). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Economics and the Mind

Economics and the Mind PDF Author: Barbara Montero
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135986452
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
Economics is often defined as the science of choice or human action. But choice and action are essentially mental phenomena, an aspect rarely mentioned in the economics discourse. Choice, while not always a conscious or rational process, is held to involve beliefs, desires, intentions and arguably even free will. Actions are often opposed to mere bodily movements, with the former being in some sense only understandable in reference to mental processes while the latter are understandable in entirely non-mental, physical terms. While philosophers have long concerned themselves with the connections between these concepts, economists have tended to steer clear of what might appear to be an a priori debate. At the same time, philosophers working on these important notions have tended to not dirty their hands with the empirical, real-world applications in which economists are specialized. This volume fills these gaps by bringing economists and philosophers of mind together to explore the intersection of their disciplines.

Caring Economics

Caring Economics PDF Author: Dalai Lama XIV Bstan-ʼdzin-rgya-mtsho
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250064120
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
"Can the hyperambitious, bottom-line-driven practices of the global economy incorporate compassion into the pursuit of wealth? Or is economics driven solely by materialism and self-interest? In [this book], experts consider these questions alongside the Dalai Lama in a wide-ranging, scientific-based discussion on economics and altruism"--Dust jacket flap.

Hive Mind

Hive Mind PDF Author: Garett Jones
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804797056
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Over the last few decades, economists and psychologists have quietly documented the many ways in which a person's IQ matters. But, research suggests that a nation's IQ matters so much more. As Garett Jones argues in Hive Mind, modest differences in national IQ can explain most cross-country inequalities. Whereas IQ scores do a moderately good job of predicting individual wages, information processing power, and brain size, a country's average score is a much stronger bellwether of its overall prosperity. Drawing on an expansive array of research from psychology, economics, management, and political science, Jones argues that intelligence and cognitive skill are significantly more important on a national level than on an individual one because they have "positive spillovers." On average, people who do better on standardized tests are more patient, more cooperative, and have better memories. As a result, these qualities—and others necessary to take on the complexity of a modern economy—become more prevalent in a society as national test scores rise. What's more, when we are surrounded by slightly more patient, informed, and cooperative neighbors we take on these qualities a bit more ourselves. In other words, the worker bees in every nation create a "hive mind" with a power all its own. Once the hive is established, each individual has only a tiny impact on his or her own life. Jones makes the case that, through better nutrition and schooling, we can raise IQ, thereby fostering higher savings rates, more productive teams, and more effective bureaucracies. After demonstrating how test scores that matter little for individuals can mean a world of difference for nations, the book leaves readers with policy-oriented conclusions and hopeful speculation: Whether we lift up the bottom through changing the nature of work, institutional improvements, or freer immigration, it is possible that this period of massive global inequality will be a short season by the standards of human history if we raise our global IQ.

Economic Theory and Cognitive Science

Economic Theory and Cognitive Science PDF Author: Don Ross
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262681684
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 455

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Book Description
In this study, Don Ross explores the relationship of economics to other branches of behavioral science, asking, in the course of his analysis, under what interpretation economics is a sound empirical science. The book explores the relationships between economic theory and the theoretical foundations of related disciplines that are relevant to the day-to-day work of economics—the cognitive and behavioral sciences. It asks whether the increasingly sophisticated techniques of microeconomic analysis have revealed any deep empirical regularities—whether technical improvement represents improvement in any other sense. Casting Daniel Dennett and Kenneth Binmore as its intellectual heroes, the book proposes a comprehensive model of economic theory that, Ross argues, does not supplant, but recovers the core neoclassical insights, and counters the caricaturish conception of neoclassicism so derided by advocates of behavioral or evolutionary economics. Because he approaches his topic from the viewpoint of the philosophy of science, Ross devotes one chapter to the philosophical theory and terminology on which his argument depends and another to related philosophical issues. Two chapters provide the theoretical background in economics, one covering developments in neoclassical microeconomics and the other treating behavioral and experimental economics and evolutionary game theory. The three chapters at the heart of the argument then apply theses from the philosophy of cognitive science to foundational problems for economic theory. In these chapters, economists will find a genuinely new way of thinking about the implications of cognitive science for economics, and cognitive scientists will find in economic behavior, a new testing site for the explanations of cognitive science.

Economic Fables

Economic Fables PDF Author: Ariel Rubinstein
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
ISBN: 1906924775
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
"I had the good fortune to grow up in a wonderful area of Jerusalem, surrounded by a diverse range of people: Rabbi Meizel, the communist Sala Marcel, my widowed Aunt Hannah, and the intellectual Yaacovson. As far as I'm concerned, the opinion of such people is just as authoritative for making social and economic decisions as the opinion of an expert using a model." Part memoir, part crash-course in economic theory, this deeply engaging book by one of the world's foremost economists looks at economic ideas through a personal lens. Together with an introduction to some of the central concepts in modern economic thought, Ariel Rubinstein offers some powerful and entertaining reflections on his childhood, family and career. In doing so, he challenges many of the central tenets of game theory, and sheds light on the role economics can play in society at large. Economic Fables is as thought-provoking for seasoned economists as it is enlightening for newcomers to the field.

The Economics of Attention

The Economics of Attention PDF Author: Richard A. Lanham
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226468828
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
If economics is about the allocation of resources, then what is the most precious resource in our new information economy? Certainly not information, for we are drowning in it. No, what we are short of is the attention to make sense of that information. With all the verve and erudition that have established his earlier books as classics, Richard A. Lanham here traces our epochal move from an economy of things and objects to an economy of attention. According to Lanham, the central commodity in our new age of information is not stuff but style, for style is what competes for our attention amidst the din and deluge of new media. In such a world, intellectual property will become more central to the economy than real property, while the arts and letters will grow to be more crucial than engineering, the physical sciences, and indeed economics as conventionally practiced. For Lanham, the arts and letters are the disciplines that study how human attention is allocated and how cultural capital is created and traded. In an economy of attention, style and substance change places. The new attention economy, therefore, will anoint a new set of moguls in the business world—not the CEOs or fund managers of yesteryear, but new masters of attention with a grounding in the humanities and liberal arts. Lanham’s The Electronic Word was one of the earliest and most influential books on new electronic culture. The Economics of Attention builds on the best insights of that seminal book to map the new frontier that information technologies have created.

Freemium Economics

Freemium Economics PDF Author: Eric Benjamin Seufert
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0124166989
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Freemium Economics presents a practical, instructive approach to successfully implementing the freemium model into your software products by building analytics into product design from the earliest stages of development. Your freemium product generates vast volumes of data, but using that data to maximize conversion, boost retention, and deliver revenue can be challenging if you don't fully understand the impact that small changes can have on revenue. In this book, author Eric Seufert provides clear guidelines for using data and analytics through all stages of development to optimize your implementation of the freemium model. Freemium Economics de-mystifies the freemium model through an exploration of its core, data-oriented tenets, so that you can apply it methodically rather than hoping that conversion and revenue will naturally follow product launch. - Learn how to apply data science and big data principles in freemium product design and development to maximize conversion, boost retention, and deliver revenue - Gain a broad introduction to the conceptual economic pillars of freemium and a complete understanding of the unique approaches needed to acquire users and convert them from free to paying customers - Get practical tips and analytical guidance to successfully implement the freemium model - Understand the metrics and infrastructure required to measure the success of a freemium product and improve it post-launch - Includes a detailed explanation of the lifetime customer value (LCV) calculation and step-by-step instructions for implementing key performance indicators in a simple, universally-accessible tool like Excel

How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind

How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind PDF Author: Paul Erickson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022604677X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciences—psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among others—and its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the people—Herbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many others—and places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a “Cold War rationality.” Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationality—optimizing, formal, algorithmic, and mechanical—in their quest to understand phenomena as diverse as economic transactions, biological evolution, political elections, international relations, and military strategy. The authors chronicle and illuminate what it meant to be rational in the age of nuclear brinkmanship.

The Mind of Wall Street

The Mind of Wall Street PDF Author: Leon Levy
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786730153
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
As stock prices and investor confidence have collapsed in the wake of Enron, WorldCom, and the dot-com crash, people want to know how this happened and how to make sense of the uncertain times to come. Into the breach comes one of Wall Street's legendary investors, Leon Levy, to explain why the market so often confounds us, and why those who ought to understand it tend to get chewed up and spat out. Levy, who pioneered many of the innovations and investment instruments that we now take for granted, has prospered in every market for the past fifty years, particularly in today's bear market. In The Mind of Wall Street he recounts stories of his successes and failures to illustrate how investor psychology and willful self-deception so often play critical roles in the process. Like his peers George Soros and Warren Buffett, Levy takes a long and broad view of the rhythms of the markets and the economy. He also offers a provocative analysis of the spectacular Internet bubble, showing that the market has not yet completely recovered from its bout of "irrational exuberance." The Mind of Wall Street is essential reading for all of us, whether we are active traders or simply modest contributors to our 401(k) plans, as volatile and unnerving markets come to define so much of our net worth.