“The main purpose of advertising is to undermine markets. If you go to graduate school and you take a course in economics, you learn that markets are systems in which informed consumers make rational choices. That's what's so wonderful about it. But that's the last thing that the state corporate system wants. It is spending huge sums to prevent that.” IfsWantStatesSchoolLastsPurposeChoicesCoursesWonderfulHugeEconomicsSpendingRationalAdvertisingConsumersCorporateGraduatesGraduate School Author:Noam Chomsky
“Don't undermine the science just because you don't like the economics. That's a dangerous slope, because the problem of course is you're not undermining just that, you're undermining the basis of rational decision-making in society.” ProblemCoursesDecisionDangerousEconomicsBasesRationalDecision MakingSlopesUnderminingRational Decisions Author:Brian Cox
“Neoclassical economics ... has uncovered important truths about the nature of money and markets because its fundamental model of rational self-interested human behavior is correct about 80% of the time.” HumansImportantSelfBehaviorModelsEconomicsFundamentalsRationalHuman Behavior Author:Francis Fukuyama
“One of the peculiarities of economics is that it still rests on a behavioral assumption-rational utility maximization-that has long since been rejected by sociologists and psychologists.” LongStillsEconomicsRationalAssumptionRejectedUtilityPsychologistSociologists Book:Dangerous currents: the state of economics Source: Dangerous currents: the state of economics
“The possibility that stock value in aggregate can become irrationally high is contrary to the hard-form "efficient market" theory that many of you once learned as gospel from your mistaken professors of yore. Your mistaken professors were too much influenced by "rational man" models of human behavior from economics and too little by "foolish man" models from psychology and real-world experience.” MenWorldHumansLittlesRealHardFormValuesPsychologyToo MuchPossibilityTheoryBehaviorModelsEconomicsContraryFoolishRationalProfessorsReal WorldEfficientMistakenHuman BehaviorFoolish ManEfficient Markets Author:Charlie Munger
“The good news is that, at least in economics, I've seen movement away from its overemphasis on mathematical models of purely rational behavior to a more eclectic and commonsense approach: research that is, among other things, more respectful of insights from psychology.” PsychologyMovementBehaviorApproachNewsModelsResearchEconomicsInsightRationalMathematicalGood NewsRespectfulEclecticMathematical Models Author:Robert J. Shiller
“If you take an economics or a political science course, you're taught that humans are supposed to be rational wealth accumulators, each acting as an individual to maximize his own wealth in the market.” IfsHumansPoliticalCoursesIndividualWealthActingTaughtEconomicsRationalSupposed To BePolitical Science Author:Noam Chomsky
“When you look at any experimental work not directly related to economics, but trying to test rational behavior in other ways, experiments have conspicuously failed to show rational behavior. Macro evidence certainly suggests deviations from rationality, but I don't want to say the rationality hypothesis is completely wrong. If you have any introspective idea or experimental idea about people's behavior, it seems to be incompatible with the really full scale rational expectations.” PeopleIfsWayWantTryingLooksIdeasShowsSeemsBehaviorExpectationsEvidenceEconomicsTestsScalesExperimentsRationalRelatedRationalityHypothesisIntrospectiveDeviationMacro Author:Kenneth Arrow
“Economists operate with this image of the homo economicus, the rational economic agent, and while such agents are rare in the wider world, they are common in economics departments. Exemplifying the homo economicus paradigm, economists typically choose their research projects and hypotheses so as to promote their own careers, to maximize their lifetime income. This explains the astonishing pressures toward conformity in academic economics: how deviant views (except those by a few who have already achieved stardom) get crushed by an army of conformists.” WorldViewsCommonCareersEconomicProjectsResearchEconomicsArmyPressureLifetimeIncomeRationalAgentsDepartmentConformityAcademicEconomistHypothesisAstonishingCrushedParadigmStardomConformistDeviants Author:Thomas Pogge
“In my opinion, economists and sociologists are the people to whom we ought to turn more than we do for instruction in the grounds and foundations of all rational decisions.” PeopleTurnsDecisionOpinionOughtEconomicsFoundationRationalInstructionEconomistSociologistsRational Decisions Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
“I have yet to meet the famous Rational Economic Man theorists describe. Real people have always done inexplicable things from time to time, and they show no sign of stopping.” PeopleMenRealDoneShowsEconomicEconomicsRationalBeing RealStoppingInexplicableTheorists Author:Charles S. Sanford, Jr.
“Economists who adhere to rational-expectations models of the world will never admit it, but a lot of what happens in markets is driven by pure stupidity - or, rather, inattention, misinformation about fundamentals, and an exaggerated focus on currently circulating stories.” WorldStoriesHappensFocusPureModelsExpectationsEconomicsFundamentalsStupidityDrivenRationalFinanceConspiracyEconomistExaggeratedAdmittingMisinformationInattention Author:Robert J. Shiller
“Put simply, behavioural economics argues that human beings' decision-taking is guided by the evolutionary baggage which we bring with us to the present day. Evolution has made us rational to a point, but not perfectly so. It has given us emotions, for example, which programme us to override our rational brain and act more instinctively.” HumansMadeGivenHuman BeingsDecisionEmotionBrainExampleEvolutionEconomicsArguingRationalProgrammesBaggagePresent Day Author:Evan Davis