People not only care about outcomes; they also value the procedures that lead to the outcomes. Procedural utility is an important source of human well-being. This paper aims at introducing the concept of procedural utility into economics, and argues that it should be incorporated more widely...

This chapter reviews the theory of the voluntary public and private redistribution of wealth elaborated by economic analysis in the last forty years or so. The central object of the theory is altruistic gift-giving, construed as benevolent voluntary redistribution of income or wealth. The theory...

Research in behavioral public finance has blossomed in recent years, producing diverse empirical and theoretical insights. This article develops a single framework with which to understand these advances. Rather than drawing out the consequences of specific psychological assumptions, the...

The intellectual histories of economics and evolutionary biology are closely intertwined because both subjects deal with living, complex, evolving systems. Because the subject matter is similar, contemporary evolutionary thought has much to offer to economics. In recent decades theoretical...

In this chapter, we discuss the “lab-in-the-field” methodology, which combines elements of both lab and field experiments in using standardized, validated paradigms from the lab in targeting relevant populations in naturalistic settings. We begin by examining how the methodology has been...

This survey explores the contributions of behavioral economics, laboratory experiments, and field experiments to our understanding of the economics of trust, trustworthiness, and reciprocal behavior. A general summary presenting the evolution of trust and reciprocity, departing from pure...

We add a gift in appreciation of the subject’s contribution to a social reference treatment successfully proven to trigger higher donations, and find that the share of people contributing decreases significantly, thereby eroding the original treatment’s capacity to increase donations.

The roots of statistics are concealed far away in ancient times. Although hidden with many unknowns and uncertainties one may see bright and impressive moments even in the farthest history. In its development social statistics has left deep marks on the whole statistics and human knowledge in...

Presented from scientometric point of view is the publication activity of the journals in the field of economic science: “Economic Thought” (Institute of Economics at BAS); “Economic Studies” (Institute of Economics at BAS; D. A. Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov; Varna Economics...

This paper provides insights into one of the first in-depth empirical studies of how patents contribute to the external access of companies to financial sources.1 Based on expert interviews and a large-scale survey across company size clusters in technology intensive industries in Germany, the...