This paper aims to present a rational decision model applied to studies of private military security companies. These organizations complement the actions of the armed forces or (in some countries) take their place, they are fulfilling a delicate role on emerging democracies. Situations are...

One of the main achievements of Herbert A. Simon in organizational theory is analytically evaluating the psychology of individual and collective behavior thus opening the ground for further research D. Kahneman, and T. Schelling. This article provides an assessment of the contributions of...

The analysis of monthly exchange rates is carried out using a model of McCallum [14], which is based on the concept of Rational Expectations. Applying the model to the CHF-USD exchange rate, st, starting a misspecification analysis, the RE component appears to be a weak point of the model. The...

This paper contrasts the modern use of the assumption that rationality guides individual economic behaviour, as reflected in simple models of utility and profit maximization, to literature between 1890 and 1930 which sharply challenged the use of such an assumption, as well as to later...

In October 1956, the RAND Corporation established the Logistics Systems Laboratory (LSL) with the goal of using simulation to translate the broad findings of normative microeconomics into detailed, implementable procedures for US Air Force operations. The laboratory was housed in the training...

The economics profession has traditionally viewed rational choice theory as a positive scientific theory. Normative economics was associated exclusively with ethics and should be kept strictly separate from positive scientific economics. This paper argues that the profession is changing in this...

Economic theory reduces the concept of rationality to internal consistency. As far as beliefs are concerned, rationality is equated with having a prior belief over a quot;Grand State Spacequot;, describing all possible sources of uncertainties. We argue that this notion is too weak in some...

Can one deamp;#64257;ne and test the hypothesis of (un)bounded rationality in stochastic choice tasks without endorsing Bayesianism? Similar to the state speciamp;#64257;city of assets, we rely on state-speciamp;#64257;c goal formation. In a given choice task, the list of state-speciamp;#64257;c goal levels is...

This paper discusses why mathematical economists of the early Cold War period favored formal-axiomatic over behavioral choice theories. One reason was that formal-axiomatic theories allowed mathematical economists to improve the conceptual and theoretical foundations of economics and thereby to...