This paper examines the different ways that economists have characterized the empirical content of modern consumer choice theory. There has been general agreement among economists that each stage in the development of the theory – from early neoclassical, to ordinal utility, and on to revealed...

The paper argues that much of the theoretical work on consumer choice theory during the first third of the twentieth century actually addressed some of the same issues discussed in contemporary behavioral economics. This is not generally recognized because the discussion was tied up with the...

Recent histories of 20th century economics have emphasized the transformation of demand theory that occurred during the period between early neoclassicism and Arrow-Debreu. This paper examines three contributions to this recent literature - Amadae (2003), Davis (2003), and Giocoli (2003) - and...

This paper examines elements of the complex place/role/influence of psychology in the history of consumer choice theory. The paper reviews, and then challenges, the standard narrative that psychology was "in" consumer choice theory early in the neoclassical revolution, then strictly "out" during...