John Maynard Keynes als Verhaltensökonom – illustriert anhand seiner Analyse des Versailler Vertrags / John Maynard Keynes as Behavioral Economist – Represented by his Analysis of the Treaty of Versailles

With his analysis of the Treaty of Versailles John Maynard Keynes became one of celebrated Economists of his time. As a member of the British delegation and therefore participant in the Paris Peace Conference he predicted that the principal product of the conference, the Treaty of Versailles, will fail to realize any of the major goals of its framers. Concerning this matter Keynes points to the cognitive errors and oversights of the negotiators as a primary cause. Against this background the logic of his reasoning is re-examined in light of recent research of behavioral economics. It reveals that Keynes′ approach is actually very consistent with and anticipating the results of recent economic works on cognitive heuristics, illusions and biases with respect to human information processing, judgment und choice in complex situations.