IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/cambje/v37y2013i6p1243-1261.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The discourse of bounded rationality in academic and policy arenas: pathologising the errant consumer

Author

Listed:
  • Judith Mehta

Abstract

This article draws on perspectives in philosophy and the sociology of knowledge to critically review the discourse of bounded rationality within contemporary economics. It is argued that the discourse pathologises consumers who are susceptible to sub-optimal market outcomes, treating their behaviour as abnormal and treating individuals as deviants in need of rehabilitation. It is claimed that by this means new forms of policy are legitimated, specifically behavioural remedies designed to draw apparently errant consumers towards behaviour that conforms more closely to the standard (that is, neoclassical) model of decision making. It is argued that the upsurge of interest in these behavioural remedies distracts attention from facets of the individual's environment, such as the characteristics of markets and the behaviour of firms, and also the set of norms and beliefs underpinning the economic system. Copyright , Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Judith Mehta, 2013. "The discourse of bounded rationality in academic and policy arenas: pathologising the errant consumer," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(6), pages 1243-1261.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:cambje:v:37:y:2013:i:6:p:1243-1261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bet040
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Brendan Markey-Towler, 2018. "Salience, chains and anchoring. Reducing complexity and enhancing the practicality of behavioural economics," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 2(1), pages 83-90, March.
    2. Paolo Crosetto & Alexia Gaudeul, 2014. "Choosing whether to compete: Price and format competition with consumer confusion," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-026, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    3. Guilhem Lecouteux, 2023. "The Homer economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 176-187, April.
    4. Lauren Larrouy & Guilhem Lecouteux, 2018. "Choosing in a Large World: The Role of Focal Points as a Mindshaping Device," Working Papers halshs-01923244, HAL.
    5. Brendan Markey‐Towler, 2019. "The New Microeconomics: A Psychological, Institutional, and Evolutionary Paradigm with Neoclassical Economics as a Special Case," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(1), pages 95-135, January.
    6. Steffestun, Theresa, 2020. "The Constitution of Ignorance: Zur Bedeutung von Nichtwissen in der Verhaltensökonomie," Working Paper Series 67, Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Institut für Ökonomie.
    7. Chris Berg & Sinclair Davidson, 2017. "Nudging, calculation, and utopia," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 1(S), pages 49-52, November.
    8. Guilhem Lecouteux, 2022. "The Homer economicus narrative: from cognitive psychology to individual public policies," Working Papers hal-03791951, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:oup:cambje:v:37:y:2013:i:6:p:1243-1261. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/cje .

    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.