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...

This public lecture discusses the criticisms of rational choice theory that have emerged within the recent literature on experimental and behavioral economics, and speculates about the possible impact on the discipline of economics

Don Ross' recent book Economic Theory and Cognitive Science (2005) provides an elaborate philosophical defense of neoclassical economics. He argues that the central features of neoclassical theory are associated with what he calls the Robbins-Samuelson argument pattern (RASP) and that it can be...

The history of modern economics abounds with pleas for more pluralism as well as pleas for more unification. These seem to be contradictory goals, suggesting that pluralism and unification are mutually exclusive, or at least that they involve trade-offs with more of one necessarily being traded...

Abstract: This paper examines criticisms of libertarian paternalism, focusing in particular on so-called knowledge problems: the set of problems associated with the question of whether a choice architect would, or even could, have sufficient information to implement a successful libertarian...

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...

This paper extends various arguments in the recent historical literature on Soviet mathematical economics during the Cold War. It will examine some of the tensions associated with the attempt to blend Walrasian economics and Soviet planning. The main argument is that the two literatures crossed...

Paul Samuelson often used the term "Santa Claus economics" for mathematical models with extremely strong and empirically unrealistic assumptions. Although Santa Claus models represented a broad class for Samuelson – some useful and some not – I will focus on one particular member of the...

This paper examines methodological issues raised by revealed preference theory in economics: particularly contemporary revealed preference theory. The paper has three goals. First, to make the case that revealed preference theory is a broad research program in choice theory – not a single...

There is an extensive critical literature analyzing the libertarian paternalism (LP) of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. This paper is critical as well, but does so from a different perspective than most of the existing research. Thaler and Sunstein characterize LP by at least two key features:...