Edward Elgar Publishing Cognitive Economics (The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics series)

This important collection examines the subject of cognitive economics - an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human problem solving, choice, decision making and change which explains economic transactions and the nature and evolution of organisations and institutions in an environment of structural uncertainty, scarcity and incentives. Cognitive economics is strongly linked with many other disciplines concerning choice, such as cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and the science of administration. This new approach is contributing to a wide range of economic fields such as consumer theory, economics of the firm, economics of innovation and evolutionary economics. These path-breaking volumes will be an indispensable tool for new research in the field of cognitive economics, and of particular interest to scholars of economics, psychology and philosophy. Review 'Economists have learned a great deal through the use of the optimising rationality paradigm (including quite a few things that ain't so). As the realization spreads that its usefulness has been pretty much exhausted, economists find themselves at long last turning to the study of how decisions are actually made. Cognitive economics is coming to the forefront. The two splendid volumes edited by Egidi and Rizzello not only collect the essential classics but also survey the present state of the field. The collection is especially valuable in its stress on the role of institutions in shaping what people learn (and what they retain) from experience. Cognitive economics carries the promise also of revitalising institutional economics.' -- Axel Leijonhufvud, University of Trento, Italy About the Author Edited by Massimo Egidi, LUISS Guido Carli University of Rome, Italy and Salvatore Rizzello, University of Piemonte Orientale, Italy