The death and resurrection of economics with psychology: remarks from a methodological standpoint

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2009)

Jan-Mar / 2009
Published January 1, 2009
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Muramatsu, Roberta. 2009. “The Death and Resurrection of Economics With Psychology: Remarks from a Methodological Standpoint”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 29 (1):62-81. https://centrodeeconomiapolitica.org.br/repojs/index.php/journal/article/view/470.

The death and resurrection of economics with psychology: remarks from a methodological standpoint

Roberta Muramatsu
Assistent/Associate Professor of Economics at Mackenzie University of São Paulo and Senior Lecturer, Ibmec Business School, São Paulo
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 29 No. 1 (2009), Jan-Mar / 2009, Pages 62-81

Abstract

One of the merits of contemporary economic analysis is its capacity to offer accounts of choice behavior that dispense with details of the complex decision machinery. The starting point of this paper is the concern with the important methodological debate about whether economics might offer accurate predictions and explanations of actual behavior without any reference to psychological presuppositions. Inspired by an exercise of rational reconstruction of ideas, I aim to offer an interpretation of the process of freeing economic analysis from psychology at the end of the 19th century and the contemporary resurrection of behavioral approaches in the late 1980s.

JEL Classification: B10; B20; B40.


Keywords: economics psychology anomalies prediction explanation