Economics without Preferences

Economics without Preferences lays out a new microeconomics - a theory of choice behavior, markets, and welfare - for agents who lack the preferences and marginal judgments that economics normally relies on. Agents without preferences defy the rules of the traditional model of rational choice but they can still systematically pursue their interests. The theory that results resolves several puzzles in economics. Status quo bias and other anomalies of behavioral economics shield agents from harm; they are expressions rather than violations of rationality. Parts of economic orthodoxy go out the window. Agents will fail to make the fine-grained trade-offs ingrained in conventional economics, leading market prices to be volatile and cost-benefit analysis to break down. This book provides policy alternatives to fill this void. Governments can spur innovation, the main benefit markets can deliver, while sheltering agents from the upheavals that accompany economic change.

Author:

Michael Mandler

Publisher:

Cambridge University Press

Publication Date:

Jan 16, 2025

Number of pages:

00258 pages

Binding:

Hardback or Cased Book

ISBN-10:

1009340700

ISBN-13:

9781009340700