This book presents state of the art reviews on classical and novel research fields in economic psychology. Internationally acknowledged experts and the next generation of younger researchers summarize the knowledge in their fields and outline promising avenues of future research. Chapters include fundamental as well as applied research topics such as the psychology of money, experience-based product design and the enhancement of financial capabilities. The book is targeted particularly towards researchers and advanced students looking to update their knowledge and refresh their thinking on future research developments. Learn More

‘Giving’ time and money to the community indicates the existence of relationships that draw people together, and ‘who people give to’ indicates how inclusive these relational networks are. Using UK data for the analysis, Zischka argues that a person’s willingness to ‘give' is not only influenced by social cohesion; it also helps to generate social cohesion. For thriving communities, we therefore need to consider our ‘giving’ as well as our ‘getting’. Learn More

Financial markets are complex. Regulators strive to predict ways in which they can malfunction and create rules to prevent this from happening, yet behavioural impacts are often overlooked. This book explores how behavioural finance can go hand-in-hand with traditional methods to help banks and regulators create better policies. It also demonstrates how the behavioural finance revolution has opened the way to a more integrated approach to the analysis of economic phenomena. Learn More

In this collection is assembled the most critical and influential articles that utilise field experimentation to answer questions of economic importance. Field experiments have gained popularity in recent years, allowing researchers to infer causal effects of different market environments, policies and interventions. The articles gathered here provide insights into market functioning and individual and group decision-making across a wide range of domains, including marketplace transactions, labor decisions, charitable giving, financial planning, and education and health-related decision-making. The collection will be an important resource for students new to the methodology and applications of field experiments and academics alike. Learn More

The Handbook of Behavioral Industrial Organization integrates behavioral economics into industrial organization. Chapters cover concepts such as relative thinking, salience, shrouded attributes, cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, confirmation bias, overconfidence, status quo bias, social cooperation and identity. Additional chapters consider industry issues, such as sports and gambling industries, neuroeconomic studies of brands and advertising, and behavioral antitrust law. The Handbook features a wide array of methods (literature surveys, experimental and econometric research, and theoretical modelling), facilitating accessibility to a wide audience. Learn More

This two-volume set brings together a unique collection of key publications at the intersection of biology and economics, two disciplines that share a common subject: Homo sapiens. Beginning with Thomas Malthus–whose dire predictions of mass starvation due to population growth influenced Charles Darwin–economists have routinely used biological arguments in their models and methods. This collection summarizes the most important of these developments, including articles in sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, behavioral economics and finance, neuroeconomics, and behavioral genomics. Together with an original introduction by the editors, this important research collection will appeal to economists, biologists, and practitioners looking to develop a deeper understanding of the limits of Homo Economicus. Learn More

This innovative book employs the social studies of finance approach which aims to enhance the dialogue between finance and sociology by addressing the blind spots of economic and financial theories. In so doing, it challenges the accusations made towards financial models in the aftermath of the last economic crisis and argues that they cannot be condemned indiscriminately. Their influence on markets and society is not straightforward, but determined by the many ways in which models are created and then used. Ekaterina Svetlova analyses the various patterns of the application of models in asset management, risk management and financial engineering to demonstrate that their power is far more fragile than widespread criticism would indicate. Learn More

This Handbook provides an overview of neuroscience-driven research methodologies and how those methodologies might be applied to theory-based research in the nascent field of neuroentrepreneurship. It presents the current thinking and examples of pioneering work, serves as a reference for those wishing to incorporate these methods into their own research, and provides several helpful discussions on the nature of an answerable question using neuroscience techniques. It includes concrete examples of new ways to conduct research that can shed light onto such areas as decision-making and opportunity recognition, allowing us to ask different, perhaps better, questions than ever before. Learn More

Leading researcher John F. Tomer presents an invigorating and concise introduction to behavioral economics that offers essential behavioral theories, perspectives, trends and developments within this ever-evolving discipline. Learn More

One of the main challenges facing contemporary society is to understand how people can make decisions together. Understanding Collective Decision Making builds on evolutionary theories and presents an analytical tool to analyse and visualise collective decision making. By combining theoretical research with real world case studies, the authors provide a coherent and conclusive solution to the often fragmented and dispersed literature on the subject. Learn More

This Handbook is a unique and original contribution of over thirty chapters on behavioural economics, examining and addressing an important stream of research where the starting assumption is that decision-makers are for the most part relatively smart or rational. This particular approach is in contrast to a theme running through much contemporary work where individuals’ behaviour is deemed irrational, biased, and error-prone, often due to how people are hardwired. In the smart people approach, where errors or biases occur and when social dilemmas arise, more often than not, improving the decision-making environment can repair these problems without hijacking or manipulating the preferences of decision-makers. This book covers a wide-range of themes from micro to macro, including various sub-disciplines within economics such as economic psychology, heuristics, fast and slow-thinking, neuroeconomics, experiments, the capabilities approach, institutional economics, methodology, nudging, ethics, and public policy. Learn More

Over several decades there have been major changes to the way public economists investigate behavioural responses to taxation. This includes areas such as the supply of labour, charitable giving, savings, capital gains realisations, mobility, bequests, family structure, reported income and tax evasion. Recent research has utilised new data sets and applied new empirical methods, including laboratory experiments, natural field experiments and controlled field experiments. Other disciplines, especially psychology, are increasingly contributing to the application of behavioural (or cognitive) economics, but the lessons from this work are unevenly disseminated. This important volume brings together the most important scholarly articles on how taxes affect individual behaviour, highlighting current knowledge on behavioural responses to taxation, new thinking about the relevant issues and analysis of useful policy options. Learn More

A Ponzi scheme is one of the simplest, albeit effective, financial frauds to engineer, and new schemes keep coming forward. Despite this, however, people continue to invest in them. How are we to account for the seemingly never-ending lure of such schemes? In providing answers to this central question, this concise and well-researched book examines how Ponzi schemes operate, how they differ from pyramid schemes, Ponzi finance and other financial arrangements. Learn More

What are people buying when they give money away? Is pure altruism possible? Who benefits from grants to charities and subsidies to givers? Is religious giving different? Which fundraising approaches ‘work’, and is more charity always better? Questions like these make philanthropy and fundraising among the most dynamic research areas in economics today. Including an original introduction, this two-volume collection guides both students and scholars from the time when giving was seen as ‘irrational’, to the present when economics has fully embraced the complex and fascinating challenges of understanding why self-interested people can be so unselfish. Learn More

This Handbook compiles the state of the art of current research on sustainable consumption from the world’s leading experts in the field. The implementation of sustainable consumption presents one of the greatest challenges and opportunities we are faced with today. On the one hand, consumption is a wanted and necessary phenomenon important for society and the economy. On the other, our means of consumption contradicts many important ecological and social long-term goals. Set against this background, the Handbook aims to offer an interdisciplinary overview of recent research on sustainable consumption, to draw attention to this subject and to encourage discussion and debate. In 27 chapters, leading authorities in the field provide their expertise in a concise and accessible manner. Learn More

In this timely book Theodore Koutsobinas explores the system of status markets and their social effects including inequality. He explains how media fascination with superstars and luxury consumption goods amplify positional concerns for all, distort the aspirations of the middle class and cause relative deprivation. Building on themes first identified by Veblen and Galbraith, Koutsobinas analyses extensively the behavioural evidence from modern interdisciplinary research and contributes constructively to a new genre of economic analysis. The Political Economy of Status compels us to consider seriously redistributive culture change policies targeted to assist the underprivileged. This book will be a valuable and lively reading resource for academics in various fields including economic theory, political economy, sociology, social psychology and cultural studies. Learn More

This book presents an accessible and sometimes controversial economic exploration of numerous issues surrounding sex, marriage and family. It analyzes the role of ‘vanity’, defined as social status and self-esteem, in social and economic behaviors. Learn More

The recent era of economic turbulence has generated a growing enthusiasm for an increase in new and original economic insights based around the concepts of reciprocity and social enterprise. This stimulating and thought-provoking Handbook not only encourages and supports this growth, but also emphasises and expands upon new topics and issues within the economics discourse. Learn More

Changing Behaviours charts the emergence of the behaviour change agenda in UK based public policy making since the late 1990s. By tracing the influence of the behavioural sciences on Whitehall policy makers, the authors explore a new psychological orthodoxy in the practices of governing. Drawing on original empirical material, chapters examine the impact of behaviour change policies in the fields of health, personal finance and the environment. This topical and insightful book analyses how the nature of the human subject itself is re-imagined through behaviour change, and develops an analytical framework for evaluating the ethics, efficacy and potential empowerment of behaviour change. Learn More