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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Summary
Kahneman, Daniel (1934–): considered to be one of the founders of behavioral economics. Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 (jointly with Vernon Smith), for his work in behavioral and experimental economics. Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, in what was then Palestine, on March 5, 1934. He received his undergraduate education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he graduated in 1954 with a degree of Bachelor of Science with a major in psychology and a minor in mathematics. He then served in the Israeli Defense Forces, first as a platoon leader and later in their Psychology Branch, until 1956. He then moved to the United States, where he received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961. He completed his dissertation “on a statistical and experimental analysis of the relations between adjectives in the semantic differential” (Kahneman, 2002). Daniel Kahneman is best known for his work with Amos Tversky in the field of behavioral economics on what they termed “prospect theory.” Their idea was first put forward in the paper “Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk,” published in 1979 in Econometrica. Kahneman describes the “core idea” of prospect theory as one in which “changes and differences are much more accessible than absolute levels of stimulation” (Kahneman, 2002). This research critiques the expected utility model as a descriptive model of economic decision-making, and instead shows that decision-makers are risk-averse, and underweight the probability of certain events occurring. His alternative theory of economic decision-making, based more on psychological research and realworld behavior, laid the groundwork for the field of behavioral economics. In addition to his contributions to prospect theory, Kahneman is also well known for his work on the psychology of judgment, framing and mental accounting, and cognitive bias. See also prospect theory, behavioral finance, experimental law and economics, and Smith, Vernon.
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- The Language of Law and EconomicsA Dictionary, pp. 162 - 163Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013