IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v14y2002i1p7-54.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rational Choice vs. Program-based Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Viktor J. Vanberg

    (University of Freiburg, Abt. Wirtschaftspolitik, 79085 Freiburg i.Br., Germany vvanberg@vwl.uni-freiburg.de)

Abstract

Rational choice theory is contrasted with the paradigm of program-based behavior suggested by biologist Ernst Mayr. This alternative behavioral paradigm, it is argued, captures much of what makes rational choice explanations intuitively appealing; it avoids, however, many of the criticisms that have been persistently raised against rational choice theory, and it has the advantage of being more in accord with theoretical approaches that are well established in other behavioral sciences. The paradigm of program-based behavior is compared, in particular, with Herbert A. Simon's concept of `bounded rationality' and to the research paradigms of evolutionary epistemology and evolutionary psychology.

Suggested Citation

  • Viktor J. Vanberg, 2002. "Rational Choice vs. Program-based Behavior," Rationality and Society, , vol. 14(1), pages 7-54, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:14:y:2002:i:1:p:7-54
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463102014001002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463102014001002
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463102014001002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John B. Davis & D. W. Hands & Uskali Mäki (ed.), 1998. "The Handbook of Economic Methodology," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 741.
    2. Simon, Herbert A, 1978. "Rationality as Process and as Product of Thought," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 68(2), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Cosmides, Leda & Tooby, John, 1994. "Better than Rational: Evolutionary Psychology and the Invisible Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 327-332, May.
    4. Simon, Herbert A., 1984. "On the behavioral and rational foundations of economic dynamics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 35-55, March.
    5. Ken Binmore, 1998. "Game Theory and the Social Contract - Vol. 2: Just Playing," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 2, number 0262024446, April.
    6. Simon, Herbert A, 1979. "Rational Decision Making in Business Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(4), pages 493-513, September.
    7. Armen A. Alchian, 1950. "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 211-211.
    8. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1994. "Methodological Individualism and Social Knowledge," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 1-9, May.
    9. Herbert A. Simon & Massimo Egidi & Ricardo Viale & Robin Marris, 1992. "Economics, Bounded Rationality and the Cognitive Revolution," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 409.
    10. Viktor Vanberg, 1997. "Institutional Evolution through Purposeful Selection: The Constitutional Economics of John R. Commons," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 105-122, June.
    11. Caldwell, Bruce J, 1991. "Clarifying Popper," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 1-33, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yun, JinHyo Joseph & Ahn, Heung Ju & Lee, Doo Seok & Park, Kyung Bae & Zhao, Xiaofei, 2022. "Inter-rationality; Modeling of bounded rationality in open innovation dynamics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    2. Ignazio Visco & Giordano Zevi, 2020. "Bounded rationality and expectations in economics," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 575, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    3. Gérard Charreaux, 2008. "La recherche en finance d’entreprise:quel positionnement méthodologique ?," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 11(Special), pages 237-290, June.
    4. Tanweer Akram, 2021. "A Note Concerning the Dynamics of Government Bond Yields," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 66(2), pages 323-339, October.
    5. David Dequech, 2008. "Varieties of uncertainty: a survey of the economic literature," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807211223070, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    6. Petracca, Enrico, 2015. "A tale of paradigm clash: Simon, situated cognition and the interpretation of bounded rationality," MPRA Paper 64517, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2013. "The Weak Rationality Principle in Economics," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 149(I), pages 1-26, March.
    8. Altman, Morris, 2014. "Insights from behavioral economics on how labor markets work," Working Paper Series 3466, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Daniele Schilirò, 2018. "Economic Decisions and Simon’s Notion of Bounded Rationality," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 11(7), pages 64-75, July.
    10. Hosseini, Hamid, 2003. "The arrival of behavioral economics: from Michigan, or the Carnegie School in the 1950s and the early 1960s?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 391-409, September.
    11. J. Barkley Rosser & Marina V. Rosser, 2017. "Complexity and institutional evolution," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 415-430, December.
    12. Ashok Chakravarti, 2012. "Institutions, Economic Performance and the Visible Hand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14751.
    13. Jack Vromen, 2013. "Competition as an evolutionary process: Mark Blaug and evolutionary economics," Chapters, in: Marcel Boumans & Matthias Klaes (ed.), Mark Blaug: Rebel with Many Causes, chapter 9, pages 98-124, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Hommes, Cars H., 2006. "Heterogeneous Agent Models in Economics and Finance," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 23, pages 1109-1186, Elsevier.
    15. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    16. Pascal Seppecher & Isabelle L Salle & Marc Lavoie, 2018. "What drives markups? Evolutionary pricing in an agent-based stock-flow consistent macroeconomic model," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 1045-1067.
    17. Louis Kaplow & Steven Shavell, 2001. "Moral Rules and the Moral Sentiments: Toward a Theory of an Optimal Moral System," NBER Working Papers 8688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2014. "On Self-Interest and Greed," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-12, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    19. Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh & John M. Gowdy, 2003. "The microfoundations of macroeconomics: an evolutionary perspective," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 27(1), pages 65-84, January.
    20. Erik Stam, 2006. "A process model of locational change in entrpreneurial firms: an evolutionary perspective," Chapters, in: Andreas Pyka & Horst Hanusch (ed.), Applied Evolutionary Economics and the Knowledge-based Economy, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:14:y:2002:i:1:p:7-54. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.