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ToolsInfante, Gerardo, Lecouteux, Guilhem and Sugden, Robert (2016) Preference purification and the inner rational agent: A critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics. Journal of Economic Methodology, 23 (1). pp. 1-25. ISSN 1350-178X
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Abstract
Neoclassical economics assumes that individuals have stable and context-independent preferences, and uses preference-satisfaction as a normative criterion. By calling this assumption into question, behavioural findings cause fundamental problems for normative economics. A common response to these problems is to treat deviations from conventional rational-choice theory as mistakes, and to try to reconstruct the preferences that individuals would have acted on, had they reasoned correctly. We argue that this preference purification approach implicitly uses a dualistic model of the human being, in which an inner rational agent is trapped in an outer psychological shell. This model is psychologically and philosophically problematic.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | preference purification,inner rational agent,behavioural welfare economics,libertarian paternalism,context-dependent preferences |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Economic Theory Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Behavioural Economics |
| Depositing User: | Pure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Mar 2016 09:06 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Apr 2023 21:34 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57618 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/1350178X.2015.1070527 |
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