Comments Tim Haab has made

More defense of environmental economists

While I agree with what John says, I think he may have understated the environmental economists position.  The tests of rationality are well-documented.  On average, people behave rationally.  Of course there are anomalies in individual behavior and I don't know of a single economist that would deny that.  But the evidence continues to mount in both experimental settings and with actual data that markets tend to induce rational behavior:  Experienced players in market settings behave in accordance with neoclassical assumptions.  Of course we can derive contrived settings where deviations are documented and expected, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.  Understanding such anomalies is of fundamental importance to economists and explains the emergence of the field of behavioral economists.  

Behavioral anomalies are not new to economists and are not ignored in our models.  Why else would economists recognize behavioral psychologists with the Nobel Prize in Economics?  Kahneman's Nobel prize was not for recent work that may someday influence economists, but for work that has entered the mainstream of economic thinking and has proven fundamental in understanding human economic behavior.  His award was "for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty"

Statements like this--

Mainstream economics is ignorant of these things. It has pretensions to being a science, but does not act scientifically. Many of its theories have never been proved, and have barely been examined using any kind of real world data. Many of its analytical techniques are outdated and inadequate. Many economists use mathematics to obscure arguments that do not need making with maths, to give them the pretence of objectivity.

--are based on an understanding of economic reasoning from 50 years ago.  Mainstream economics is fully congnizant of these 'things.'  Yes I believe people do behave rationally in most situations.  Not from dogmatic adherence to a philosophy but based on observation, analysis and hypothesis testing.On Market mechanisms are your friend posted 4 years ago 13 Responses