Evolving Norms: Cognitive Perspectives in Economics

by Shinji Teraji

Overview

This book presents institutional evolution and individual choice as codependent results of behavioral patterns. Drawing on F.A. Hayek's concepts of cognition and cultural evolution, Teraji demonstrates how the relationship between the sensory and social orders can allow economists to track social norms and their effects on the global economy. He redirects attention from the conventional focus on what an individual chooses to the changing social order that determines how an individual chooses. Cultural shifts provide the environmental feedback that challenges the mental models governing individual choice, creating a cycle of coevolution. Teraji develops a general framework from which to examine this symbiotic relationship in order to identify predictive patterns. Not just for behavioral economists, this book will also appeal to those who specialize in institutional economics, the philosophy of economics, and economic sociology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137502469
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	06/08/2016
Series:	Palgrave Advances in Behavioral Economics
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	355
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Shinji Teraji is Professor of Economics at Yamaguchi University, Japan. His research is mainly concerned with behavioral economics, institutional economics, and economic methodology.

Table of Contents

1 Foundations.- 2 Why Do People Obey Norms?.- 3 The Sensory Order Revisited.- 4 Norms, Coordination, and Order.- 5 Culture and Cultural Evolution.- 6 Co-evolution of Mind and Society.- 7 Epilogue.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Building on the pioneering work by Friedrich Hayek and Herbert Simon, Shinji Teraji builds a unique analytical framework to better understand how social norms evolve and possibly converge over time. This has implications for improving one’s understanding of how stable social orders evolve and can be maintained. Key to Teraji’s contribution is modeling the dialectic and dynamic interaction between individuals and their perspectives of reality and the institutional parameters that affect choice behavior.” (Morris Altman, Dean and Head, Newcastle Business School; Professor of Behavioural and Institutional Economics, University of Newcastle, Australia)