Paul Walker • Feb 01, 2017 •
I came across an interesting paper the other day that suggests behavioural economics is older than most people think. The paper “The Relations of Recent Psychological Developments to Economic Theory” by Z. Clark Dickinson in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 33, No. 3: 377-421 dates from May 1919! The summary of the paper reads, The purely objective factors … Read More
Guest Author • Sep 23, 2016 •
This is the final post in the three-part guest series from the Morgan Foundation’s Jess Berentson-Shaw and Geoff Simmons exploring the legacy of the myth of the rational human – Homo economicus. In our previous post we looked at how Homo economicus thinking ignores so much of what we know about human behaviour, especially in relation to public … Read More
Guest Author • Sep 22, 2016 •
This guest post from the Morgan Foundation’s Jess Berentson-Shaw and Geoff Simmons is the second in a series of three exploring the legacy of the myth of the rational human – Homo economicus. As outlined in our first post , it’s time to ditch the myth of rational humans – homo economicus. The trouble is that many economists haven’t … Read More
Guest Author • Sep 21, 2016 •
This is the first in a three-part guest post series from the Morgan Foundation’s Jess Berentson-Shaw and Geoff Simmons exploring the legacy of the myth of the rational human – Homo economicus. When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? – J.M. Keynes Assumptions are science’s dirty little secret. We all make them, but we … Read More
James Zuccollo • Jul 22, 2015 •
A fascinating talk by psychologist, Dan Gilbert. Ten years old but worth watching if you haven’t seen it before. The core point is that people get buyer’s remorse when choices are reversible and become increasingly unhappy with their decision. When choices are irreversible, endowment effects kick in and they become happier with their choice over […] … Read More
Matt Nolan • Sep 14, 2014 •
There were a bunch of excellent comments on yesterday’s food post. I thought I could answer them by adding a bit of clarity here. First off to answer this tweet: @TVHE I love it when you call me names. Particularly ones I don't understand. — Geoff Simmons (@geoffsimmonz) September 2, 2014 My comments were certainly […] … Read More
Matt Nolan • Sep 14, 2014 •
After reading both the Stuff article and the initial article on Gareth Morgan’s blog and the follow up, I am convinced both Gareth and Geoff Simmons (GG) have inadvertently become extreme social constructivists – but may not realise it yet. Now I hate it when people just whip out rhetoric like “social constructivist” and don’t explain […] … Read More
James Zuccollo • Aug 12, 2014 •
As the world starts to move from focusing on growth to wellbeing a group of neuroscientists decided to test people’s brains to check whether ‘happiness’ occurred as predicted. The BBC reports that they found “We can look at past decisions and outcomes and predict exactly how happy you will say you are at any point in […] … Read More
Eric Crampton • Aug 04, 2014 •
Paul Ryan's welfare plan, including stronger reliance on case managers to guide clients out of income support and into work, reminds me an awful lot of the Beaulier and Caplan piece on behavioural economics and welfare. It was published in Kyklos; the link above goes to the ungated version.I'd paraphrased their paper a few years ago:If we … Read More
Matt Nolan • Jun 05, 2014 •
Via Gareth Morgan on twitter I spotted the following post from the University of Otago Public Health blog. The money quote: They found that the biggest impact of a minimum price policy was on “harmful” drinkers in the lowest income quintile (7.6% reduction in alcohol), whereas the impact on harmful drinkers in the highest income quintile […] … Read More