The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis

The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis is a masterpiece. It covers the whole field of behavioral economics. And it is also an easy read, as beautiful examples throughout lead readers to appreciate behavioral decisions from the perspective of their own lifetime experience. * George A. Akerlof, Daniel E. Koshland, Sr. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of California at Berkeley and 2001 Nobel Laureate in economics * The publication of this book is a landmark occasion for the field of behavioural economics. Until now there has been no comprehensive survey of the field suitable for graduate students. Professor Dhami has thoroughly and rigorously filled that gap. The book will be placed in a handy place in my office since I plan to consult it regularly. * Richard H. Thaler, Charles R Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science, University of Chicago and 2017 Nobel Laureate in Economics * This is truly an amazing work. It is unique in both comprehensiveness and depth. The author is to be applauded for producing what will surely be the standard reference for both researchers and students. And breaking it into seven volumes will greatly enhance its usability. I highly recommend these volumes to any serious reader in behavioral economics. * Gary Charness, Professor of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara * The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis offers a fascinating mix of theory and evidence and is the most comprehensive synthesis of behavioral economics at an advanced level. It will be very useful for advanced researchers as well as for graduate students in behavioral economics and beyond. * Ernst Fehr, University of Zurich * This series of seven volumes is a tour de force, a literal encyclopedia of behavioral economics. Its extraordinary breadth and depth, spanning all aspects from psychological foundations to the most recent advances and seamlessly integrating theory with experiments, will make it the must-have reference for anyone interested in this field, and more generally in where economics is headed. It will quickly become the standard textbook for all graduate courses in behavioral economics, and a much-thumbed companion for all researchers working at the frontier. * Roland Benabou, Princeton University * For someone like myself, who started by being ignorant of the richness of the conversation within behavioral economics on a variety of issues, this magisterial volume is the ideal introduction, at once lucid and sophisticated. * Abhijit Banerjee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology * In Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis, Sanjit Dhami offers the first summary and exposition of research in this rapidly growing and increasingly influential subfield. The coverage is comprehensive, extending even to the recent subtopics of behavioural welfare economics and neuroeconomics. The book is distinguished by its detailed yet readable coverage of theory and evidence and its balanced discussion of the philosophical and methodological differences and similarities between behavioural and neoclassical approaches to microeconomics. Select undergraduates, graduate students, and interested scholars will all gain from this masterful book. * Vincent P. Crawford, University of Oxford and University of California, San Diego * Economic theory in the twentieth century developed an extremely powerful repertoire of analytical techniques for studying human behavior, but labored under the rather bizarre misconception that the postulates of rational choice were sufficient to characterize economic behavior. Behavioral economics from the late twentieth century to the present demonstrated the explanatory power of hitching these analytical techniques to empirical data gleaned from laboratory and field experiments. The result has radically transformed economics as a scientific discipline, and the best is surely yet to come. Sanjit Dhami has performed a monumental task in consolidating this research and explaining the results in a rigorous yet accessible manner, while highlighting major controversies and sketching the central research questions facing us today. * Herbert Gintis, Santa Fe Institute * In the development of any field there comes a moment where the results already established must be synthesized, explained and consolidated both for those in the field and those outside. In these amazing volumes Sanjit Dhami has done just that and far more. This book will serve as an encyclopedic must-have reference for anyone seeking to do work in this field or just curious about it. The coverage is exhaustive and the exposition extremely clear and at a level suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduates students, and professionals. This is truly an achievement. * Andrew Schotter, New York University and Center for Experimental Social Science * Displaying wit and wisdom, in iFoundations of Behavioral Economic Analysisr Professor Dhami conveys both the substance and the excitement of the burgeoning field of behavioral economics. These remarkable volumes will serve as a reference for practitioners and a compelling entry-point for the curious. * George Loewenstein, Carnegie Mellon University * This is a unique and truly remarkable achievement. It is a magnificent overview of behavioral economics, by far the best there is, and it should define the field for at least a generation. But it is much more than that. It is also a brilliant set of original discussions, with pathbreaking thinking on every important topic. An invaluable resource for policymakers, students, and professors - and if they want to try something really special, for everyone else. * Cass Sunstein, coauthor of Nudge and Founder and Director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, Harvard Law School * The expansion of behavioral economics during the past quarter century has been remarkable, much of it concerning strategic interaction and using tools from game theory. Sanjit Dhami's amazing book, now available in a convenient multi-volume format, summarizes - and even defines - the field, broadly as well as in depth. His coverage of theory as well as of experiments is superb. Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars who wish to understand where the action is * Martin Dufwenberg, University of Arizona * Sanjit Dhami's Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis is a major and most impressive achievement. It provides an exhaustive account and a masterful synthesis of the state of the art after more than three decades of behavioral economics. It has proven to be an indispensable reference for researchers in economics and psychology. The second, updated edition comes in seven volumes, and it is bound to become the standard text in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses on behavioural and experimental economics for many years to come. * Klaus M. Schmidt, University of Munich * This is the most complete and stimulating series of books on behavioral economics. With elegance and unprecedented elaborateness, it ties together a wealth of experimental findings, rigorous theoretical insights and exciting applications across all relevant fields of behavioral research. Sanjit Dhami's work has been shaped by numerous comments of the leaders in the field. Now, in the years to come, it will be the standard that shapes how the next generation of students and researchers think about behavior and its science. * Axel Ockenfels, University of Cologne, Speaker of the Cologne Excellence Center of Social and Economic Behavior * These seven volumes cover all relevant theoretical aspects of behavioral economics in great depth. A great strength is their comprehensiveness: they cover the whole field in a unified manner. They thus are unique in bringing to the fore the unity and diversity of the behavioral approach. The material is well-organized and accessible to a wide audience. It is invaluable to anyone teaching or studying any topic in behavioral economics, showing how the topic fits into the whole. * Peter Wakker, Erasmus University Rotterdam * Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis will be a central textbook for behavioral economics. One key feature is its appealing focus on the interplay between theory and evidence. For researchers, it will be a great source of information, puzzles, and challenges for the many years to come. It is a major achievement. * Xavier Gabaix, Pershing Square Professor of Economics and Finance, Harvard University * Sanjit Dhami has spent more than 10 years on the monumental task to lay out the foundations of behavioral economics. The result is a major achievement. The book provides a comprehensive and encompassing survey and I think it will shape how the next generation of researchers thinks about the field. Overall, this is an excellent book that can be commended to advanced students of behavioural economics and to non-behavioural economics who are looking for an entry point into the field. It will also serve researchers in behavioural economics as an authoritative reference book. It is a must-have for anyone with a serious interest in the field. * Jean-Robert Tyran, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics * The Foundations of Behavioural Economic Analysis is a major contribution to the contemporary economic studies in the areas of behavioural economics, psychology and game theory. It will remain as a major treatise on behavioural economics for many decades. I cannot think that another book will supersede this book in terms of rigor, comprehensiveness, and analytical sophistication in the foreseeable future. This book is also a very interesting and extremely useful publication for academic analysis, policy design and practical applications. * Professor.Sardar M. N.Islam, Victoria University * Almost all the chapters follow a basic structure: they sketch the neoclassical theory; review evidence on its empirical plausibility; introduce alternative behavioral theories; finally go on to discuss further evidence of the newer theories' relative successes and failures compared to the neoclassical theories. A lot of thought has gone into writing the introductions of each section as they outline the broad trends, debates, and core empirical results, making it easy to get into the detailed chapters with a clear idea of the direction of research in that topic.To sum it up, the book ends up doing exactly what it promised, take stock of behavioral economicscourse text for advanced students.., a research handbook for behavioral economists, and an invitation to economists and other social scientists of all persuasions to explore this exciting new field. * Utteeyo Dasgupta, Studies in Microeconomics *