The text is designed as the main text for an undergraduate course in Behavioral Economics, which is a growing course for students of economics at the undergraduate level. The presentation is grounded in microeconomics and traditional economic models to discuss observed human behavior. The book presents models that show the trade-offs between material benefits and social concerns. The models incorporate social concerns such as altruism, guilt, exploitation, fairness, and cognitive dissonance. Unlike many other books on behavioral economics, the text is not a catalog of human quirks. Although the book highlights all sorts of observed behavior that appears irrational and misguided, it doesn't stop there. It examines the possible motives for the puzzling behavior. For many misguided and regrettable choices, we highlight actions taken to control the behavior and mitigate the damage. We use the insights of anthropologists and economists to explore the role of natural selection in shaping human thinking and behavior. A decision that appears irrational today may be understandable in the context of millions of years of natural selection. Recent work explores the role of natural selection in (i) loss aversion, (ii) the endowment effect, (iii) time preferences, and (iv) responses to the free-rider problem.

About the Author
Arthur O'Sullivan is Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Professor of Economics at Lewis & Clark College. He is the author of Urban Economics, Ninth Edition (2019), the best-selling urban economics text, and co-author, with Steven Sheffrin and Stephen Perez, of Economics: Principles, Applications, and Tools, Tenth Edition (2020).

Reviews
[This book] has excellent coverage of topics, really great learning design for students, and nice connection with academic studies. * Joe Price, Brigham Young University *
Of all the textbooks I've seen this matches the style that I teach the course the best. It covers the main topics of behavioral topics well, strikes the right balance between simplicity and rigor, has nice graphics, and covers interesting side topics. * Benjamin Ho, Vassar College *



Book Information
ISBN 9780197515921
Author Arthur O'Sullivan
Format Paperback
Page Count 472
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 835g
Dimensions(mm) 191mm * 234mm * 22mm