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Article
Rationality as a Process
Review of Behavioral Economics (2018)
  • Mario J Rizzo
  • Glen Whitman
Abstract
Individual decision-making is not adequately portrayed by focusing on static rationality properties. The static approach can mistake rationality-in-process for bounded rationality or irrationality. We consider a sampling of intellectual frameworks that address decisionmaking rationality as a process, including intrapersonal arbitrage, Wicksteed’s principle of price, dialectical reasoning, and error driven learning. We conclude that the approach to normative analysis shared by both neoclassical and behavioral economists is not the only possible one and that, in fact, it misses an important aspect of human decision-making. Evaluations based on the static approach are at best incomplete and likely to be misleading. 
Keywords
  • Intrapersonal equilibrium,
  • dialectical thinking,
  • internal arbitrage,
  • inconsistency,
  • errors,
  • learning
Publication Date
2018
DOI
10.1561/105.00000098
Citation Information
Mario J Rizzo and Glen Whitman. "Rationality as a Process" Review of Behavioral Economics Vol. 5 (2018) p. 201 - 219 ISSN: 2326-6198
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/mario_rizzo/43/