Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour : Towards a New Social Science Paradigm, Extended Second Edition

This book champions the view that economics is a social science, and that, moreover, it may serve as a new paradigm for the social sciences. Economics is taken to be part of those sciences which deal with actual problems of society by providing insights, improving our understanding and suggesting solutions. I am aware that the way problems are addressed here has little in common with economics as it is generally understood today; most economists make strong efforts to imitate the exact sciences. Economics tends to become a branch of applied mathematics; the majority of all publications in professional journals and books are full of axioms, lemmas and proofs, and they are much concerned with purely formal deductions. Often, when the results are translated into verbal language, or when they are applied empirically, disappointingly little of interest remains. The book wants to show that another type of economics exists which is surprisingly little known. This type of economics has its own particular point of view. It centres on a concept of man, or a model of human behaviour, which differs from those normally used in other social sciences such as sociology, political science, law, or psychology. I do not, however, claim that economics is the only legitimate social science. On the contrary, economics can provide useful insights only in collaboration with the other social Vll Vlll PREFACE sciences-an aspect which has been disregarded by mathematically oriented economics. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Economics as a Social Science: Approach, Applications and Interdisciplinarity....Pages 3-19 Front Matter....Pages 21-22 Natural Environment: Fair Siting Procedures....Pages 23-48 Politics: Unemployment and National Socialism....Pages 49-69 Arts: Investments in Paintings....Pages 71-83 Family: Patriarchy in China....Pages 85-98 Conflict: Fighting Political Terrorism by Refusing Recognition....Pages 99-107 History: Prisoners of War....Pages 109-131 Academia: American and European Economics and Economists....Pages 133-141 Front Matter....Pages 143-144 The Limits and Further Developments of Homo Oeconomicus....Pages 145-157 The Price System and Morals....Pages 159-175 The Sound of Silence in Prisoner’s Dilemma and Dictator Games....Pages 177-194 An Ipsative Theory of Human Behaviour....Pages 195-211 Back Matter....Pages 213-249 Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour champions the view that economics can serve as a paradigm for all of the social sciences by dealing with actual problems of society. Bruno S. Frey provides insights and improves our understanding of human behaviour, while suggesting solutions to social problems in such areas as the environment, politics, art, family, history and academia. He extends the economic model by emphasising issues of fairness and morals and by relating to psychological issues. This revised second edition presents three new chapters on: fair siting procedures to preserve the natural environment an economic analysis of the behaviour of academics fairness in social interactions (prisoner's dilemmas and ultimatum games). /LIST "Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour, champions the view that economics can serve as a paradigm for all of the social sciences by dealing with actual problems of society. Bruno S. Frey provides insights and improves our understanding of human behaviour, while suggesting solutions to social problems in such areas as the environment, politics, art, family, history and academia. He extends the economic model by emphasising issues of fairness and morals and by relating to psychological issues."--BOOK JACKET