Abstract
Behavioral economics (BE) assumes that what holds for average individuals provides good evidence for all entities. In truth, decision-making is often explained by underlying ideas and is manifested by actual behavior, that of organizations (including non-profits), as well as by that of individuals and enterprises. BE’s guidance should be not only how to avoid poor choices (as at present), but how to make decisions that enable individuals and enterprises to rise to the top, including those who are initial outliers. This chapter summarizes the heuristics and biases uncovered by economists and psychologists in their empirical work on decision-making and offers alternatives for determining the behavior of enterprise outliers and of organizations, including non-profits, that are successful and rise to the top.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bezos, Jeffrey P. 2021. Invent & Wander, The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press and Public Affairs.
Dhami, Sanjit. 2016. The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Schwartz, Hugh. 2018. Producer and Organizational Decision-Making. Is Behavioral Economics Losing Its Way? Bloomington, IN: Archway Publishing.
Tomer, John F. 1987. Organizational Capital: The Path to Higher Productivity and Well-Being. Westport, CT and London, UK: Praeger.
_____. 1995. The Human Firm, A Socio-Economic Analysis of its Behavior and Potential in a New Economic Age. London, UK: Routledge.
_____. 2008. Intangible Capital: Its Contribution to Economic Growth, Well-being and Rationality. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
_____. 2015. Integrating Human Capital with Human Development: The Path to a More Productive and Humane Economy. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schwartz, H. (2022). Behavioral Economics, Public Policy, and Basic Decision-Making: A Critical Narrative . In: Altman, M. (eds) Constructing a More Scientific Economics. Palgrave Advances in Behavioral Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83928-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83928-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-83927-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-83928-4
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)