Wanted: A Unifying Theory of Behavioral Economics

Behavioral economics has always met with a bit more resistance than it deserved. This is true even though a number of behavioral researchers have won the Nobel -- Daniel Kahneman, Robert Shiller and Richard Thaler just last year. Despite this and other forms of official recognition at the highest levels, there continue to be some economists who have an almost instinctive aversion to behavioral ideas themselves.

Meanwhile, though research in behavioral economics itself continues, behavioral ideas haven’t spread -- in most fields of econ, the vast majority of models continue to be based on an idealized, perfectly rational homo economicus. Meanwhile, the occasional economist still feels comfortable declaring that the behavioral paradigm is doomed.