Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics

Neoclassical economics assumes that individuals have stable and context-independent preferences, and uses preference satisfaction as a normative criterion. By calling this assumption into question, behavioural findings cause fundamental problems for normative economics. A common response to these problems is to treat deviations from conventional rational choice theory as mistakes, and to try to reconstruct the preferences that individuals would have acted on, had they reasoned correctly. We argue that this preference purification approach implicitly uses a dualistic model of the human being, in which an inner rational agent is trapped in an outer psychological shell. This model is psychologically and philosophically problematic.     

‘On the Econ within’: a reply to Daniel Hausman

This note replies to a comment by Daniel Hausman on our paper ‘Preference purification and the inner rational agent: a critique of the conventional wisdom of behavioural welfare economics’. We clarify our characterisation of behavioural welfare economics and acknowledge that Hausman does fully endorse this approach. However, we argue that Hausman’s response to our critique, like behavioural welfare economics itself, implicitly uses a model of an inner rational agent.     

Toward a Dynamic Theory of Intermediate Conformity

The issue of conformity to social norms has been a major focus of research. Yet, intermediate conformity, which refers to actors who are neither total conformers nor non‐conformers, has received scant attention even though the behaviour is likely widespread. This paper aims to extend the literature on conformity to social norms by laying the foundations for a tractable theory of intermediate conformity. Here, a set of key factors hypothesized to lead actors into intermediate conformity is identified and formal arguments about the dynamic‐legitimacy and reputational effects of their intermediate conformity moves are formulated. Important building blocks include a taxonomy of norms that allows for norm heterogeneity and a recognition that conformity may change over time. The developed framework provides a new conceptual lever for better understanding how intermediate conformers cope over time with social norms of different types and importance.