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The arrival of behavioral economics:from Michigan, or the Carnegie Schoolin the 1950s and the early 1960s?
Abstract
The essay discusses the rise of (modern) behavioral economics during the last few decades. In contrast
to Louis Uchitell’s assertion, in his Feb. 11, 2001,NYTimes essay, that behavioral economics began
in 1994, Iwould try to argue that it began during the 1950s and early 1960s, although some aspects
of it had even emerged in theworks of Marshall,Wesley Mitchell, J.M. Clark and others, before WWII.
Although contributions of many writers have helped the rise of behavioral economics including
psychologists Kahneman and Tversky, I regard theworks of George Katona and Herbert Simon instrumental
in its rise. While the works of Katona and his colleagues at Michigan University led to the use
of survey method in economics and its utilization in measuring the impact of consumer expectations
on macroeconomic activity, the work of Simon at Carnegie Tech.(a tremendously stimulating intellectual
environment for economic theorizing then) resulted in the important theoretical foundations of
behavioral economics, such as the concept of bounded rationality. Interestingly enough, that stimulating
environment also led to the many contributions of Franco Modigliani, M. Miller, and others, and
the start of the rational expectations hypothesis by John Muth—a student of Simon and Modigliani.
The essay also provides the characteristics of behavioral economics, which include the utilization
of the theoretical findings of psychology and other social sciences; its concentration on real observed
behavior of economic agents; its rejection of the simplistic model of rational maximizing agents and its
replacement with Simon’s bounded rationality; and its emphasis on the utilization of an indisciplinary
approach in economics.
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