Peter E. Earl, Principles of Behavioral Economics: Bringing Together Old, New and Evolutionary Approaches

Behavioral economics has burgeoned in the past few decades, both in terms of its impact on the economics discipline and via its influence on public policy-making. In the late 1990s, many mainstream economists viewed behavioral economics with scepticism, perhaps because it challenged the dominant view then held by many economists — that decision-making is a strictly rational, mathematical process. Now, behavioral economic concepts are routinely embedded into otherwise mainstream models. Behavioral economics’ influence on policy has grown in tandem — with behavioral insights teams around the world adapting behavioral economic policy “nudges” to address a wide range of economic policy problems. This rapid growth in the reach and influence of behavioral economics has spawned a plethora of behavioral economics books in various guises, saturating the market with textbooks, primers and “pop” introductions. Against this backdrop, Peter Earl’s latest book — Principles of Behavioral Economics: Bringing Together Old, New and Evolutionary Approaches — is a distinctively original contribution. The depth of Earl’s analysis reflects his extensive knowledge of the history of behavioral economic thought — a knowledge which is possibly unrivalled, given Earl’s continual interest and contributions to behavioral economics over the past forty years. (His first behavioral economics book — The Economic Imagination – Towards a Behavioral Analysis of Choice — was published in 1983.) …