The fundamental theme underlying Hirshman’s thought regards the nature of the process of the economic choice. He argues that the search of “appropriateness” between too much and too little, expresses our aspiration to well-being, better than the idea of an objective concerning pleasure maximization. Besides this is due to the fact that the most relevant among our choices don’t allow us to characterize an optimal solution, but press for the “appropriate” alternation of different criteria. Once the choice has been carried out, we usually aim, trough a mechanism of reduction of the cognitive dissonance, to weaken disappointment and regret for the criteria we have discarded. It is on the very base of these theses that Hirschman discusses which “strategies” could better enhance our economic choices.
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Paper provided by Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche in its series Working Papers Series with number
wp2007_03.rdf.
Find related papers by JEL classification: O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General O29 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Other
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