Book contents
- Frontmatter
- THE LECTURES
- 1 The Economics of Incentives: An Introductory Account (1983)
- 2 On the Theory of Perfect Competition (1984)
- 3 On the Role of "Dutch Books" in the Theory of Choice Under Risk (1985)
- 4 Rationality and Bounded Rationality (1986)
- 5 On the Mechanics of Economic Development (1987)
- 6 Knightian Uncertainty (1988)
- 7 Evolution, Learning, and Economic Behavior (1989)
- 8 Experimental Economics: Behavioral Lessons for Microeconomic Theory and Policy (1990)
- 9 Habits, Addictions, and Traditions (1991)
- 10 Issues in Social Insurance (1993)
- 11 Negotiation with Private Information: Litigation and Strikes (1994)
- 12 Economic Survival (1995)
- 13 Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves: The Economics of Social Mobility (1996)
9 - Habits, Addictions, and Traditions (1991)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- THE LECTURES
- 1 The Economics of Incentives: An Introductory Account (1983)
- 2 On the Theory of Perfect Competition (1984)
- 3 On the Role of "Dutch Books" in the Theory of Choice Under Risk (1985)
- 4 Rationality and Bounded Rationality (1986)
- 5 On the Mechanics of Economic Development (1987)
- 6 Knightian Uncertainty (1988)
- 7 Evolution, Learning, and Economic Behavior (1989)
- 8 Experimental Economics: Behavioral Lessons for Microeconomic Theory and Policy (1990)
- 9 Habits, Addictions, and Traditions (1991)
- 10 Issues in Social Insurance (1993)
- 11 Negotiation with Private Information: Litigation and Strikes (1994)
- 12 Economic Survival (1995)
- 13 Shirtsleeves to Shirtsleeves: The Economics of Social Mobility (1996)
Summary
INTRODUCTION
It is a great honor and privilege to be this year's Nancy Schwartz Lecturer, given the distinguished economists who preceded me, and the person honored by the series. I did not know Nancy Schwartz well personally, but I have known and learned from her work. Economic theory and industrial organization lost an important contributor at too early an age.
The usual assumption in most discussions of behavior over time is that choices today are not directly dependent on choices in the past. The great economist J. R. Hicks expressed strong disapproval of this assumption:
It is nonsense that successive consumptions are independent; the normal condition is that there is a strong complementarity between them.
[1965, page 261]It is ironic that this sentence comes at the end of a rather lengthy monograph on economic growth that relies throughout on the independence assumption.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Frontiers of Research in Economic TheoryThe Nancy L. Schwartz Memorial Lectures, 1983–1997, pp. 123 - 141Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998