Behavioral Law and Economics (Cambridge Series on Judgment and Decision Making)

Rating:
Summary: Behavioral Economics Comes of Age
Review: There are several prominent legal scholars who work in the interface of social theory and law, but Cass Sunstein is, to my mind, one of the very few really innovative thinkers with full control of social theory. This edited collection shows that the approach he has been working on for the past several years, has finally come of age.

The first synthesis of law and economics took place several decades ago, based on the seminal work of Nobel prize winning Chicago economist Ronald Coase. The synthesis was based on the so-called "rational actor model" (often called homo Economicus) that can be derived from certain axiomatic, mathematics-like principles, based on the notion of self-interest and utility maximization. This was a major breakthrough in social theory and policy.

But the "rational actor model" has been shown to be systematically violated by real human beings, and behavioral economics arose to ammend the "rational actor model" to fit the reality. It's not that people are irrational, but rather the concept of rationality used in the traditional theory is seriously wanting. If you're interested in this larger backdrop to the present book, there is a marvelous new book on the subject edited by its creators, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, called "Choices, Values, and Frames."

The introductory chapters of Behavioral Law and Economics are refreshingly clear and free of jargon. These are followed by some of the most important articles that have been written on the topic over the past several years.

Behavioral law and economics is not just some academic field. It is absolutely, front and center, critical to political philosophy and the policy sciences in general. This book is for both expert and layperson alike---a real tour de force.