[PEN-L:2630] Re: Re: Immutability of Subjects

[Brad De Long <delong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Brad,
>     I think that there is a sea change on this matter
>going on.  Quite aside from the work of such folks as
>Robert Frank, we have the excellent review article in the
>March, 1998 _Journal of Economic Literature_ by Matthew
>Rabin, recently identified by _The Economist_ as one of the
>new comers in economics, especially in conjunction with the
>penetration into economics of ideas from psychology (not
>sociology).  People like Kahneman and Tversky, not to
>mention that devotee of "behavioral finance" Richard Thaler
>and his _Winner's Curse_, have been plowing these fields
>for some time.
>     Rabin's article reviews quite a few studies that have
>been done about how peoples' preferences can change and
>indeed how they are not very good at predicting those
>changes or taking them into account.  I agree that most
>economists continue to have a lot of trouble with all of
>this, and it is certainly a lot easier to just assume it
>all away as we usually do.  But that is getting to be less
>and less viable and there is a serious and new discussion
>going on out there.

I don't think there has been. I hope that you are right and that there will
be...

Brad DeLong