Striving for Balance in Economics : Towards a Theory of the Social Determination of Behavior

Hoff, Karla ; Stiglitz, Joseph E.

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: BELIEF SYSTEMS;    FISH;    MASS MEDIA;    ECONOMIC INCENTIVES;    MOTIVATION;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7537
RP-ID  :  WPS7537

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper is an attempt to broadeneconomic discourse by importing insights into human behaviornot just from psychology, but also from sociology andanthropology. Whereas the concept of the decision-maker instandard economics is the rational actor and, in early workin behavioral economics, the quasi-rational actor influencedby the context of the moment of decision-making, in somerecent work in behavioral economics the decision-maker couldbe called the enculturated actor. This actor'spreferences, perception, and cognition are subject to twodeep social influences: (a) the social contexts to which hehas become exposed and, especially, accustomed; and (b) thecultural mental models—including categories, identities,narratives, and worldviews—that he uses to processinformation. The paper traces how these factors shapeindividual behavior through the endogenous determination ofpreferences and the lenses through which individuals see theworld—their perception and interpretation of situations. Thepaper offers a tentative taxonomy of the social determinantsof behavior and describes the results of controlled andnatural experiments that only a broader view of thesedeterminants can plausibly explain. The perspective suggestsmore realistic models of human behavior for explainingoutcomes and designing policies.