Contribution to Book
The Problem of Rationality: Austrian Economics between Classical Behaviorism and Behavioral Economics
The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics
(2015)
Abstract
This chapter draws on the history of economic thought to elucidate the foundations of the Austrian economics conception of rationality. First, it shows how Austrian subjectivism was originally differentiated from nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century psycho logically based economics. Then it shows how the Austrians differentiated themselves from the behaviorist approach that began to affect economics as early as the 1910s but mainly from the 1920s to the 1950s. Finally, drawing on the work of Friedrich Hayek and Alfred Schutz, it shows that the Austrian conception of rationality is not based on intro spection and illustrates the differences between an Austrian approach and that of today’s new behavioral economics
Keywords
- behavioral economics,
- behaviorism,
- Friedrich Hayek,
- introspection,
- psychology,
- rationality,
- Alfred Schutz,
- subjectivism
Disciplines
Publication Date
November, 2015
Editor
Peter J. Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne
Publisher
Oxford University Press
ISBN
9780199811762
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199811762.013.16
Citation Information
Mario J Rizzo. "The Problem of Rationality: Austrian Economics between Classical Behaviorism and Behavioral Economics" The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics (2015) p. 364 - 392 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mario_rizzo/32/