🧃Intermediate Microeconomic Theory Unit 10 – Behavioral Economics: Bounded Rationality

Key Concepts and Definitions

• Bounded rationality recognizes that human decision-making is limited by cognitive constraints, available information, and time
• Satisficing involves making decisions that are "good enough" rather than optimal due to these limitations
• Heuristics are mental shortcuts or rules of thumb used to simplify complex decision-making processes
  • Availability heuristic relies on easily accessible information or examples to make judgments
  • Representativeness heuristic involves making decisions based on how similar something is to a typical case
• Cognitive biases are systematic errors in judgment that deviate from rational decision-making (anchoring bias, confirmation bias)
• Prospect theory proposes that people make decisions based on the potential value of losses and gains rather than the final outcome
• Framing effects occur when different presentations of the same information lead to different choices

Historical Context and Development

• Bounded rationality emerged as a response to the limitations of traditional economic models that assumed perfect rationality
• Herbert Simon introduced the concept in the 1950s, challenging the assumption of homo economicus or the perfectly rational decision-maker
• Simon's work on satisficing and heuristics laid the foundation for behavioral economics
• Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman further developed the field in the 1970s and 1980s with their research on cognitive biases and prospect theory
• The publication of "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases" (1974) and "Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk" (1979) were seminal works in the field
• Richard Thaler's work on mental accounting and the endowment effect expanded the application of behavioral economics to real-world contexts
• The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Economics to Kahneman (2002) and Thaler (2017) solidified the importance of behavioral economics

Rational Choice Theory vs. Bounded Rationality

• Rational choice theory assumes that individuals have complete information, stable preferences, and the ability to optimize their decisions
• In contrast, bounded rationality recognizes the limitations of human cognition and decision-making processes
• Rational choice theory predicts that people will always choose the option that maximizes their utility or satisfaction
• Bounded rationality suggests that people often make satisfactory rather than optimal decisions due to cognitive constraints
• Rational choice theory struggles to explain seemingly irrational behaviors such as the sunk cost fallacy or loss aversion
• Bounded rationality provides a more realistic framework for understanding human decision-making in complex, uncertain environments
• While rational choice theory remains a useful normative model, bounded rationality offers a descriptive approach to decision-making

Cognitive Limitations and Heuristics

• Humans have limited cognitive resources, including attention, memory, and processing capacity
• These limitations lead to the use of heuristics or mental shortcuts to simplify decision-making
• The availability heuristic involves making judgments based on easily accessible information (recent events, vivid examples)
  • Overestimating the likelihood of plane crashes due to media coverage
• The representativeness heuristic involves making decisions based on similarity to a typical case (stereotyping)
  • Assuming a successful businessperson is more likely to be a man than a woman
• Anchoring and adjustment involve making estimates based on an initial value and then adjusting insufficiently
  • Estimating the value of a house based on the listing price
• Heuristics can lead to cognitive biases or systematic errors in judgment
• While heuristics are often useful for quick decision-making, they can also lead to suboptimal outcomes in complex situations

Decision-Making Models in Behavioral Economics

• Prospect theory proposes that people make decisions based on the potential value of losses and gains rather than the final outcome
  • People are risk-averse when it comes to gains and risk-seeking when it comes to losses
  • The value function is concave for gains and convex for losses, with a steeper slope for losses
• Mental accounting involves separating financial decisions into different mental accounts (regular income vs. windfall gains)
  • Treating money differently depending on its source or intended use
• The endowment effect suggests that people place a higher value on items they own compared to identical items they do not own
  • Demanding a higher price to sell a mug than one would be willing to pay to buy the same mug
• Hyperbolic discounting involves placing a higher value on immediate rewards compared to future rewards
  • Choosing a smaller, sooner reward over a larger, later reward
• These models help explain seemingly irrational behaviors and provide insights into how people actually make decisions

Real-World Applications and Case Studies

• Behavioral economics has been applied to a wide range of real-world contexts, including finance, healthcare, and public policy
• In finance, prospect theory helps explain investor behavior during market bubbles and crashes
  • Investors are more likely to sell winning stocks too early and hold onto losing stocks too long
• In healthcare, the framing of treatment options can influence patient decision-making
  • Presenting survival rates vs. mortality rates for a surgery
• In public policy, choice architecture or "nudges" can be used to guide people towards better decisions
  • Automatically enrolling employees in a retirement savings plan
• Case studies demonstrate the practical implications of bounded rationality and behavioral economics
  • The "Save More Tomorrow" program increased retirement savings by allowing employees to commit to future increases
  • The UK government's Behavioural Insights Team has applied behavioral insights to improve tax collection and organ donation rates

Critiques and Limitations of Bounded Rationality

• Some argue that bounded rationality is too broad and lacks predictive power compared to rational choice theory
• The focus on individual decision-making may neglect the role of social and institutional factors
• Behavioral economics has been criticized for being paternalistic and potentially limiting individual autonomy
  • Concerns about the ethics of using nudges to influence behavior
• The generalizability of findings from laboratory experiments to real-world contexts has been questioned
• Bounded rationality may not fully account for the adaptive and learning capabilities of humans over time
• Despite these limitations, bounded rationality remains a valuable framework for understanding and improving decision-making

Future Directions and Research

• Integrating insights from other disciplines, such as psychology, neuroscience, and computer science, to further develop models of bounded rationality
• Exploring the role of emotions, social norms, and cultural factors in decision-making processes
• Developing more precise and testable theories of bounded rationality and behavioral economics
• Conducting field experiments and natural experiments to validate laboratory findings in real-world settings
• Investigating the long-term effects and unintended consequences of behavioral interventions and nudges
• Examining the implications of bounded rationality for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems
• Applying behavioral insights to address pressing societal challenges, such as climate change, poverty, and healthcare
• Refining methods for measuring and quantifying the impact of behavioral interventions on individual and societal outcomes