Identity, Capabilities, and Changing Economics

Mainstream economics assumes economic agents act and make decisions to maximize their utility. This model of economic behavior, based on rational choice theory, has come under increasing attack in economics because it does not accurately reflect the way people behave and reason. The shift towards a more realistic account of economic agents has been mostly associated with the rise of behavioral economics, which views individuals through the lens of bounded rationality. Identity, Capabilities, and Changing Economics goes further and uses identity analysis to build on this critique of the utility conception of individuals, arguing it should be replaced by a conception of economic agents in an uncertain world as socially embedded and identified with their capabilities. Written by one of the world's leading philosophers of economics, the book develops a new approach to economics' theory of the individual, explaining individuals as adaptive and reflexive rather than utility maximizing.

Author: John B. Davis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 02/01/2024
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9781009438254

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2024

About the Author
Davis, John B.: - John B. Davis is Professor Emeritus of Economics: Marquette University, University of Amsterdam. He is the author of Keynes's Philosophical Development, The Theory of the Individual in Economics, and Individuals and Identity in Economics, and a former co-author of the Journal of Economic Methodology.

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