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Why give money to beggars? Why make sacrifices to help others? The current volume targets such questions with the tools of neoclassical and behavioural economics, philosophy, and sociology of religion. Both religion and economics are analyzed as social institutions that support human intra-group cooperation. Even if individuals are rational maximizers of personal utility, they yet must take into account the reciprocal nature of human relationships. It is better to be part of a cooperative group and make some personal sacrifices because, in the end, everybody benefits from this. Sometimes the metaphor of an invisible hand is used to describe the fact that economic exchange seems to follow some rules that guarantee the best possible result for everyone. In religion, it is of course the hand of God that guides the world. In both cases, individuals are in a way playing against a superior being that always seems to win. In this volume, some of the cognitive mechanisms and cultural selective forces behind this are examined by specialists in different fields of science. The first contributions analyze theoretical and methodological issues; in later chapters, developments in the European history are explored from the perspectives of sociology and economic theory.

Economics --- Cooperation --- Religious aspects. --- Moral and ethical aspects. --- Economics. --- Evolution of Cooperation. --- Rational Choice Theory. --- Religion. --- Theology.

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Mainstream economists everywhere exhibit an "irrational passion for dispassionate rationality." Behavioral economists, and long-time critic of mainstream economics suggests that people in mainstrean economic models "can think like Albert Einstein, store as much memory as IBM’s Big Blue, and exercise the will power of Mahatma Gandhi," with a view that economists’ view of homo sapiens is simply wrongheaded. Indeed, Thaler and other behavioral economists and psychology have documented a variety of ways in which real-world people fall far short of mainstream economists' idealized economic actor, perfectly rational homo economicus. Behavioral economist Daniel Ariely has concluded that real-world people not only exhibit an array of decision-making frailties and biases, they are "predictably irrational," a position now shared by so many behavioral economists, psychologists, sociologists, and evolutionary biologists that a defense of the core rationality premise of modedrn economics is demanded. In Predictably Rational? In Search of Defenses of Rational Behavior in Economics, Richard McKenzie, a professor of economics and management at the University of California, Irvine, takes up the challenge to defend mainstream economics’ core premise, but in unexpected ways. He first takes readers through a review of the intellectual history of the motivational premise undergirding economics from Adam Smith through to Alfred Marshall to Frank Knight, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich Hayek to Milton Friedman, George Stigler, and Gary becker. Professor McKenzie finds ample criticisms of the rationality premise within the intellectual history of the discipline. He also surveys the relevant literature in evolutionary biology and neurobiology and neujroeconomics, which fortifies the behavioralists’ criticisms that "perfect rationality" is not tenable. Nonetheless, in spite of the evidence and arguments, Professor Mckenzie mounts defenses of continued use of the rationality premise on counterintuitive grounds, not the least of which is that the demonstrated "irrationalities" in human decision makes all the more compelling the use of the perfect rationality premise in economics. Economists are themselves drawm from the human population. They must operate within their own limited and mistake-prone mental faculities. The premise of rationality is one means by which economists can gain insights about complex human interactions that might not exscape them if they assume people were not more rational than economists know them to be. In addition, economists’ perfect rationality premise is not only a means for deriving testable hypotheses, it is also a standard by which economists, and their students, can derive heuristics that can lead to improved decision making (or decision making that is better than might be expected of real-world people without instruction in the "economic way of thinking"). Professor McKenzie draws conclusions that are at odds with standard, mainstream economics, not the least of which is that markets do more to improve economic efficiency than conventional microeconomics supposes. Markets not only allocate efficiently known resources among known wants. They also provide feedback mechanisms that the human brain needs to operate more efficiently and that improve decision making, as well as hone people’s wants and appreciation of resources. Markets can make people more rational than they may be inclined to be. Richard McKenzie is the Walter B. Gerken Professor of Enterprise and Society in the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. Widely published in academic journals and general audience publications, his two most recent books are In Defense of Monopoly: How Market Power Fosters Creative Production (University of Michigan Press, 2008) and Why Popcorn Costs so Much at the Movies, And Other Pricing Puzzles (Springer, 2008) (www.merage.uci.edu/~mckenzie).

Economics -- Psychological aspects. --- Rational choice theory. --- Rational expectations (Economic theory). --- Economics --- Economic man --- Rational expectations (Economic theory) --- Economic Theory --- Business & Economics --- Psychological aspects --- Economic man. --- Psychological aspects. --- Homo oeconomicus --- Behavioral economics --- Behavioural economics --- Economics. --- Management science. --- Economic history. --- Economic theory. --- Economic Theory/Quantitative Economics/Mathematical Methods. --- Economics, general. --- Methodology/History of Economic Thought. --- Economic theory --- Political economy --- Social sciences --- Economic conditions --- History, Economic --- Quantitative business analysis --- Management --- Problem solving --- Operations research --- Statistical decision --- Human beings --- Self-interest --- History of Economic Thought/Methodology.

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In economics agents are assumed to choose on the basis of rational calculations aimed at the maximization of their pleasure or profit. Formally, agents are said to manifest transitive and consistent preferences in attempting to maximize their utility in the presence of several constraints. They operate according to the choice imperative: given a set of alternatives, choose the best. This imperative works well in a static and simplistic framework, but it may fail or vary when 'the best' is changing continuously. This approach has been questioned by a descriptive approach that springing from the complexity theory tries to give a scientific basis to the way in which individuals really choose, showing that those models of human nature is routinely falsified by experiments since people are neither selfish nor rational. Thus inductive rules of thumb are usually implemented in order to make decisions in the presence of incomplete and heterogeneous information sets; errors and biases are the natural counterpart of learning and adapting processes. The papers collected in this volume show that economic agents, individual or aggregate, do not conform to standard economic models, highlighting how a different framework - complexity theory - could help to explain and understand the choice and decision process of economic agent.

Mathematics. --- Game Theory, Economics, Social and Behav. Sciences. --- Complex Networks. --- Economic Systems. --- Economics. --- Mathématiques --- Economie politique --- AA / International- internationaal --- 305.6 --- Risicotheorie, speltheorie. Risicokapitaal. Beslissingsmodellen. --- Consumer behavior --- Decision making --- Economics --- Econophysics --- Finance, Personal --- Financial risk management --- Rational choice theory --- Risk --- Deciding --- Decision (Psychology) --- Decision analysis --- Decision processes --- Making decisions --- Management --- Management decisions --- Choice (Psychology) --- Problem solving --- Behavior, Consumer --- Buyer behavior --- Decision making, Consumer --- Human behavior --- Consumer profiling --- Market surveys --- Behavioral economics --- Behavioural economics --- Uncertainty --- Probabilities --- Profit --- Risk-return relationships --- Social choice --- Risk management --- Financial management, Personal --- Financial planning, Personal --- Personal finance --- Personal financial management --- Personal financial planning --- Finance --- Financial literacy --- Statistical physics --- Economic statistics --- Econometrics --- Economic sociology --- Socio-economics --- Socioeconomics --- Sociology of economics --- Sociology --- Psychological aspects --- Social aspects --- Methodology --- Philosophy --- Sociological aspects --- Statistical methods --- Risicotheorie, speltheorie. Risicokapitaal. Beslissingsmodellen --- Planning

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For any market to work properly, certain key elements are necessary: competition, pricing, rules, clearly defined offers, and easy access to information. Without these components, there would be chaos. Orderly Fashion examines how order is maintained in the different interconnected consumer, producer, and credit markets of the global fashion industry. From retailers in Sweden and the United Kingdom to producers in India and Turkey, Patrik Aspers focuses on branded garment retailers--chains such as Gap, H&M, Old Navy, Topshop, and Zara. Aspers investigates these retailers' interactions and competition in the consumer market for fashion garments, traces connections between producer and consumer markets, and demonstrates why market order is best understood through an analysis of its different forms of social construction. Emphasizing consumption rather than production, Aspers considers the larger retailers' roles as buyers in the production market of garments, and as potential objects of investment in financial markets. He shows how markets overlap and intertwine and he defines two types of markets--status markets and standard markets. In status markets, market order is related to the identities of the participating actors more than the quality of the goods, whereas in standard markets the opposite holds true. Looking at how identities, products, and values create the ordered economic markets of the global fashion business, Orderly Fashion has wide implications for all modern markets, regardless of industry.

Industrial sociology. --- Fashion merchandising --- Clothing trade --- Sociology --- Industrial organization --- Industries --- Fashion marketing --- Merchandising --- Retail trade --- Apparel industry --- Clothiers --- Clothing industry --- Fashion industry --- Garment industry --- Rag trade --- Textile industry --- Tailors --- Social aspects. --- Social aspects --- Economic sociology --- Industrial economics --- Advertising Costs. --- Advertising agency. --- Advertising campaign. --- Advertising. --- And Interest. --- Anti-fashion. --- Behalf. --- Benchmarking. --- Brand extension. --- Brand loyalty. --- Calculation. --- Capitalism. --- Clothing industry. --- Clothing. --- Commodity. --- Comparative advantage. --- Competition (economics). --- Competition. --- Competitive advantage. --- Consulting firm. --- Consumer Goods. --- Consumer choice. --- Consumer network. --- Consumer. --- Counterfeit consumer goods. --- Creative work. --- Currency. --- Customer base. --- Customer. --- Designer. --- Developed country. --- Double auction. --- Economic cost. --- Economic sociology. --- Economics. --- Entrepreneurship. --- Ethical trade. --- Exchange of information. --- Fair value. --- Fashion editor. --- Fashion line. --- Fast fashion. --- Financial capital. --- Free trade. --- Fundamental analysis. --- Globalization. --- Glocalization. --- Grand theory. --- Haute couture. --- Identity management. --- In-House. --- Internationalization. --- Investor relations. --- Knowledge society. --- Lean manufacturing. --- Letter of credit. --- Liberalization. --- Marginal utility. --- Market (economics). --- Market segmentation. --- Marketing collateral. --- Marketing. --- Micromarketing. --- Neoclassical economics. --- No frills. --- Obsolescence. --- Organizational studies. --- Outlet store. --- Overproduction. --- Positioning (marketing). --- Price fixing. --- Price mechanism. --- Pricing. --- Product design. --- Product differentiation. --- Proposal (business). --- Protectionism. --- Purchasing power. --- Rational choice theory. --- Ready Made Garment. --- Reasonable person. --- Relationship marketing. --- Retail. --- Risk aversion. --- Scientific management. --- Search cost. --- Shopping. --- Social constructionism. --- Social structure. --- Speculation. --- Standardization. --- Stock exchange. --- Stock market. --- Supply chain. --- Technical analysis. --- Trade association. --- Utility. --- Utilization. --- Vendor. --- World Trade Organization.