The Economics Of Rationality

The concept of the rational economic agent is at the heart of modern economics. Mainstream economic theory seems unable to proceed without the assumption that agents function by finding the optimal means to a well-defined end. Despite the centrality of this view, many economists find this concept of rationality to be of little use when applied to a wide range of economic phenomena.
"The Economics of Rationality" contains a group of critical perspectives on the treatment of rationality in economics. The contributors are drawn from several sub-disciplines within economics, such as experimental economics, post-Keynesian economics, institutional economics, and economic methodology. Taken together, the essays cast considerable doubt on the question of whether a unitary conception of rationality within economics is possible or desirable.