文档介绍：Behavioral Macroeconomics and Macroeconomic Behavior†
By E A. AKERLOF*
Think about Richard Scarry’s Cars and pathologies that may develop under these more
Trucks and Things That Think about what realistic conditions.
that book would have looked like in sequential For me, the study of asymmetric information
decades of the last century had Richard Scarry was a very first step toward the realization of a
been alive in each of them to delight and amuse dream. That dream was the development of a
children and parents. Each subsequent decade behavioral macroeconomics in the original
has seen the development of ever more special- spirit of John Maynard Keynes’ General Theory
ized vehicles. We started with the Model T (1936). Macroeconomics would then no longer
Ford. We now have more models of backhoe suffer from the “ad hockery” of the neoclassical
loaders than even the most precocious four- synthesis, which had overridden the emphasis in
year-old can identify. The General Theory on the role of psychologi-
What relevance does this have for econom- cal and sociological factors, such as cognitive
ics? In the late 1960’s there was a shift in the bias, reciprocity, fairness, herding, and social
job description of economic theorists. Prior to status. My dream was to strengthen macroeco-
that time microeconomic theory was mainly nomic theory by incorporating assumptions
concerned with analyzing the peti- honed to the observation of such behavior. A
tive, general-equilibrium model based upon team of people has participated in the realiza-
profit maximization by firms and utility maxi- tion of this dream. Kurt Vonnegut would call
mization by consumers. The macroeconomics this team a kerass, “a group of people who are
of the day, the so-called neoclassical synthesis, unknowingly working together toward some
appended a fixed money wage to such a general- common goal fostered by a larger cosmic influ-
equilibrium system. “Sticky money wages” ex- ence.”2 In th