[ricolo41]

I was just wondering about a new discipline called "behavioral economics." I read a very interesting article about in the April edition of Scientific American. The author discussed his research concerning capuchin monkeys and their cooperative behavior. This lends support to the main tenet of behavioral economics - "it views the way human conduct business as an evolved heritage of our species," (SciAm, 4/05 p.74). Also, the author pointed out that basic cooperational and emotional mechanics in humans readily appear in animals (most prevalent and similar in primates).

Does anyone know anything about this? I read in the article that Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith founded this discipline, and even won the Nobel Prize in '02 for doing so - However, does anyone know of specific literature or published research I can check out about this subject? I searched on the internet, but there is a lot of material. I don't know where to begin. I welcome any guidance and insight into this emerging social science field.

[nlrkoi1]

"Advances in Behavioral Economics" by Camerer and Loewenstein (Princeton UP) has lots of articles and you can see how this new field is applied to various branch of economics. It's not an easy read, so if you haven't got enough time, you may want to just read the first introductory article. Have fun!

[Michaelangelica]

Well Was it really me who said Australia had got rid of Financial Cowboys in the 80's?
If it was, I deny it completely:)

Two large margin-lending stockbroking firms have just gone to the wall because of a "Crisis in Confidence" (+ with one, maybe, a touch of corruption)
Now I can't remember my economics teacher ever mentioning that in an economics lecture.

Is this what you mean by Behavioural Economics?

Perhaps a marriage pf sociology, psychology, group dynamics, choas theory and economics might give us better predictive models?

O yes, There is that wild-card too -GREED.