Neuroeconomics, Judgment, and Decision Making

Behavioral Economics is a burgeoning field that studies the effects of social, cognitive, and emotional factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions, and the consequences for financial markets, resource allocation, and individuals' own financial security. The field's primary concern is the bounds of rationality of economic agents. Behavioral models typically integrate insights from psychology with neo-classical economic theory, and, in so doing, cover a range of concepts, methods, and fields. Behavioral analysts are not only concerned with the effects of market decisions but also with public choice, which describes another source of economic decisions with related biases towards promoting self-interest. This volume covers the current research of behavioral economics and neuroeconomics with a broad perspective, and an accessible and engaging writing style that may be used as a text on upper-level courses. Coverage includes the cognitive and social psychology of decision making that is particularly relevant to the field of behavioral economics, as well as the neurological bases for the cognitive principles and the applications in a variety of domains. The book begins by covering foundational principles of behavioral economics and decision-making, and then reviews the insights that neuroscience gives into these principles and the biological basis for decision-making and neuroeconomics. The final section covers applications of these principles in a variety of domains, beginning with individual financial decisions, and expanding to the impact of group interactions, and, finally, public policy applications. The contributors are all senior researchers in the field, including past presidents of the Society for Judgment and Decision-Making.