Decision making and equilibria

Aldo Rustichini

pp. 293-304

in: Horacio Arló Costa, Jeffrey Helzner (eds), More foundations of the decision sciences, Synthese 187 (1), 2012.

Abstract

In economics and in the social sciences, the study of decision making of the single individual is an important preliminary step to provide a sound foundation for the analysis of equilibria in economic and social systems. Neuroeconomic analysis of the process has been a recent fruitful development in this direction. In the more recent past a new direction of research has emerged, studying the interplay of the decision making of the single individual with the economic and social environment that surrounds him. We review some of the results in this field, both theoretical and experimental, and suggest that a closer development of these two methods of research will be necessary in the future.