Opportunity and preference learning

Arbeitspapier

Robert Sugden has recently elaborated upon the case for a normative standard of freedom as opportunity that is supposed to cope with the problem of how to realign normative economics - with its traditional rational choice orientation - with behavioral economics. His standard, though, presupposes that people respond to uncertainty about their own future preferences by dismissing any kind of self-commitment. We argue that the approach lacks psychological substance: Sugden's normative benchmark - the responsible person - is a purely artificial construct that can hardly serve as a convincing role model in a contractarian setting. An alternative concept is introduced, and some policy implications are briefly discussed.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Papers on Economics and Evolution ; No. 1208

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Exchange and Production Economies ; Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
• Subject: Opportunity Criterion ; Preference Change ; Reconciliation Problem ; Verhaltensökonomik ; Präferenztheorie ; Persönlichkeitspsychologie ; Theorie

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Schubert, Christian
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Max Planck Institute of Economics
• (where): Jena
• (when): 2012

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/88255
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET