IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ula/econom/v33y2008i26p43-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the futility of criticizing Simon´s rational choice model

Author

Listed:
  • Gustavo Marqués

    (Centro de Investigación en Epistemología de las Ciencias Económicas (CIECE), Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (FCE), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora (UNLZ).)

  • Diego Weisman

    (Centro de Investigación en Epistemología de las Ciencias Económicas (CIECE), Facultad de Ciencias Económicas (FCE), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) y Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).)

Abstract

Models of Bounded Rationality are often seen as more realistic than the traditional alternatives based on the fully-rational homo economicus, assumed by Expected Utility Theory (EUT). In his seminal paper on Bounded Rationality Simon (1955) pictured a decision maker as having computational capacities and limited information. These changes were well received by many economists who disliked the “hopelessly un-realist” flavor of based-EUT models. To put Simon (1955) in a nutshell, though real agents cannot maximize because his rationality and knowledge is bounded, they can satisfy in the sense of choosing a good (but not necessary optimal) option. This view is attractive because it is in line with commonsense and seems to be descriptively accurate, but unfortunately it lacks empirical content –or, to say the least, it certainly has less empirical content than EUT.

Suggested Citation

  • Gustavo Marqués & Diego Weisman, 2008. "On the futility of criticizing Simon´s rational choice model," Economía, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (IIES). Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales. Universidad de Los Andes. Mérida, Venezuela, vol. 33(26), pages 43-62, july-dece.
    • Handle: RePEc:ula:econom:v:33:y:2008:i:26:p:43-62
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp://iies.faces.ula.ve/Pdf/Revista26/Rev26Marques.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Simon, Herbert A, 1986. "Rationality in Psychology and Economics," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 209-224, October.
    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. Azariadis, Costas & Stachurski, John, 2005. "Poverty Traps," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 5, Elsevier.
    2. Freeman, Steven F., 1997. "Good decisions : reconciling human rationality, evolution, and ethics," Working papers WP 3962-97., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    3. Graham, Fred & Isaac, Alan G., 2002. "The behavioral life-cycle theory of consumer behavior: survey evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 391-401, August.
    4. Michael Makowsky, 2006. "An Agent-Based Model of Mortality Shocks, Intergenerational Effects, and Urban Crime," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 9(2), pages 1-7.
    5. Pinto, Hugo, 2008. "Existe um Institucionalismo? Caminhos para uma teoria económica satisfatória [There is one institutionalism? Pathways to a satisfactory economic theory]," MPRA Paper 13512, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Lotz, Aïleen, 2011. "An Economic Approach to the Self : the Dual Agent," MPRA Paper 30043, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Felipe Pérez, 1998. "- Private Experience In Adaptive Learning Models," Working Papers. Serie AD 1998-03, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    8. Anseeuw, Ward & Laurent, Catherine & Modiselle, Salome & Carsten, Johan & van der Poll, Sakkie, 2001. "Diversity of the rural farming households and policy issues: an analysis based on a case study in the Northern Cape Province in South Africa," MPRA Paper 23768, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Laurent, Catherine & van Rooyen, Johan & Madikizela, Patrick & Bonnal, Philippe & Carstens, Johan, 1998. "Households typology for relating social diversity and technical change. The example of rural households in the Khambashe area of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa," MPRA Paper 27026, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Gonzalo Caballero, 2004. "Instituciones e historia económica: enfoques y teorías institucionales," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 6(10), pages 135-157, January-J.
    11. Tyson, Christopher J., 2008. "Cognitive constraints, contraction consistency, and the satisficing criterion," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 138(1), pages 51-70, January.
    12. Laurence Amblard & J.P. Colin, 2009. "Reverse tenancy in Romania: Actors' rationales and equity outcomes," Post-Print hal-00454533, HAL.
    13. Berg, Nathan, 2010. "Behavioral Economics," MPRA Paper 26587, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Felipe Perez-Marti, 2000. "Private Experience in Adaptive Learning Models," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(2), pages 283-310, April.
    15. Markus Pasche, 1998. "An Approach to Robust Decision Making: The Rationality of Heuristic Behavior," Working Paper Series B 1998-10, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, School of of Economics and Business Administration.
    16. Adam Fforde, 2005. "Persuasion: Reflections on economics, data, and the 'homogeneity assumption'," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 63-91.
    17. Contini, Bruno & Morini, Matteo, 2007. "Testing Bounded Rationality against Full Rationality in Job Changing Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 3148, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Martin Raiser, 1997. "Destruction, diversity, dialogue: Notes on the ethics of development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(1), pages 39-57.
    19. Dagsvik, John K. & Strom, Steinar & Jia, Zhiyang, 2006. "Utility of income as a random function: Behavioral characterization and empirical evidence," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 23-57, January.
    20. Miravete, Eugenio & Palacios-Huerta, Ignacio, 2002. "Learning Temporal Preferences," CEPR Discussion Papers 3604, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bounded rationality; satisfying; expected utility; methodology.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • D0 - Microeconomics - - General

    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:ula:econom:v:33:y:2008:i:26:p:43-62. 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: Alexis Vásquez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iiulave.html .

    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.