The Irrational Economist: Making Decisions in a Dangerous World [NOOK Book]

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Overview

Of the twenty most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001. Is this an omen of what the 21st century will be? How might we behave in this new, uncertain and more dangerous environment? Will our actions be rational or irrational?

A select group of scholars, innovators, and Nobel Laureates was asked to address challenges to rational decision making both in our day-to-day life and in the face of catastrophic threats such as climate changes, natural disasters, technological hazards, and human malevolence. At the crossroads of decision sciences, behavioral and neuro-economics, psychology, management, insurance, and finance, their contributions aim to introduce ...

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Overview

Of the twenty most costly catastrophes since 1970, more than half have occurred since 2001. Is this an omen of what the 21st century will be? How might we behave in this new, uncertain and more dangerous environment? Will our actions be rational or irrational?

A select group of scholars, innovators, and Nobel Laureates was asked to address challenges to rational decision making both in our day-to-day life and in the face of catastrophic threats such as climate changes, natural disasters, technological hazards, and human malevolence. At the crossroads of decision sciences, behavioral and neuro-economics, psychology, management, insurance, and finance, their contributions aim to introduce readers to the latest thinking and discoveries.

The Irrational Economist challenges the conventional wisdom about how to make the right decisions in the new era we have entered. It reveals a profound revolution in thinking as understood by some of the greatest minds in our day, and underscores the growing role and impact of economists and other social scientists as they guide our most important personal and societal decisions.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
The past year has been eye-opening for economists, suggesting that free markets are far from self-correcting and that people do not, in fact, behave rationally, a hard blow for a burgeoning field that aspires to hard science. To make up for that apparent reality gap, this compendium from academics Michel-Kerjan and Slovic broadens the purview of economics by drawing on everything from psychology (behavioral economics) to neurology (neuroeconomics) to underwriting (lessons from catastrophe reinsurance). Many contributors' approaches are so nascent they suggest little more than a direction for exploration, but raise compelling questions regarding the human capacity for irrationality: why, for instance, can the fate of one (imaginary) boy in a helium balloon arrest our sympathy while we ignore the violent deaths of thousands in Darfur? Why do we fail to protect ourselves against likely catastrophic events (only 1 out of 5 California households hold earthquake insurance) while investing millions of dollars to combat highly unlikely terrorist attacks? Allowing for such factors when building economic and other models of human behavior should enhance their predictive power; one essayist reveals how the inevitable failure of New Orleans levees might have been foreseen and prevented. This collection is an intriguing look at the limitations of human knowledge regarding its own nature, especially relevant for the current moment of economic turmoil.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780786746262
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs
  • Publication date: 1/5/2010
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • Pages: 336
  • File size: 1 MB

Meet the Author

Erwann Michel-Kerjan teaches at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is Managing Director of the Wharton Risk Center, which for 25 years has been at the forefront of research into the management of extreme events. Honored as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (Davos), he advises on these issues for top decision makers around the world.

Paul Slovic is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and founder and President of Decision Research. He is the author of several praised books on human judgment and risk analysis, and is a recipient the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association.

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